The Reading and Leeds FACT is a collaboration between Reading Borough Council, CGL (Reading), Leeds City Council, Forward Leeds and Festival Republic. Members of the FACT have expertise in drugs and alcohol, health and wellbeing, welfare and safeguarding, marketing and communications, and events management, licensing and coordination.
In 2021, the FACT developed #LookOutForEachOther – a drug, alcohol and wider health, wellbeing and safety festival campaign. Based on a series of animations, the campaign aims to raise awareness of these issues, to ensure festival goers have the best time they can, while remaining safe. The campaign is also used at a number of other festivals across the country, including Download, Wireless, Latitude and Creamfields.
The current members of the FACT are:
Dan Burn: Health Improvement Principal (Drugs and Alcohol), Leeds City Council – CHAIR
Dan has worked in the drug and alcohol sector for over two decades. He is the public health lead for drugs and alcohol in Leeds and Chair of the Reading and Leeds FACT. He has previously worked in the national Drug and Alcohol Division at Public Health England, as well as the national Policy and Research Team at the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. He started his career as a substance use researcher and has worked as a drugs worker at the Westminster Drug Project. He is currently the Chair of the Leeds Drug and Alcohol Social Marketing Planning Group, the Chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Drug and Alcohol COI, and sits on the National Executive Board of the English Substance Use Commissioners Group (ESUCG), where he Co-Chairs the ESUCG’s National Preventing Drug and Alcohol-Related Deaths Subgroup.
Sally Andersen: Senior Commissioner Drugs and Alcohol, Reading Borough Council – DEPUTY CHAIR
Sally is the public health lead for drugs and alcohol in Reading and the Deputy Chair of the Reading and Leeds FACT. She has worked as a commissioner for drugs and alcohol in Reading for ten years. This includes commissioning community treatment and recovery services for children and adults, primary care services, and hospital-based services, along with preventative work with partners (e.g. leading the delivery of the Drug and Alcohol Strategic Plan, trading standards and Licensing, harm reduction, and public campaigns). Sally has worked in mental health services for over a decade, in a variety of roles, more recently volunteering in a women’s specialist service working with vulnerable women who have suffered addictions, abuse, self-harm and more.
Claire Armstrong: Event Manager, Festival Republic
Claire has over fifteen years experience, spanning many corners of the live industry. She is currently an Event Manager at Festival Republic. However, in a previous life, she toured with bands such as the Wombats, before working as a promoter rep across various venues in Scotland. Since moving to London and joining the Festival Republic team, it has been the operational side of events that sparked her interest. She has a love for crowd dynamics, as well as looking at ways to better safeguard customers on site. She has been working with agency partners in Reading since 2017, looking at safeguarding policy and procedures and working to enhance the services available on green field sites.
Lucy Carter: Senior Marketing Manager, Festival Republic
Lucy has worked in the live events industry for almost a decade. She is currently a Marketing Manager, at Festival Republic, working across all Festival Republic events. She has worked across a number of different progressive communication campaigns for festivals, particularly around the safety of festival goers.
Mark Hindwell: Marketing and Communications Officer, Forward Leeds
Mark has worked in marketing and comms for over twenty-five years, with some brief spells off for time in rehab. Mark began working for Forward Leeds, the city’s alcohol and drug service in 2016. As well as promoting Forward Leeds, Mark has been responsible for a number of successful city-wide public health campaigns around alcohol and drugs (as the Deputy Chair of the Leeds Drug and Alcohol Social Marketing Planning Group), both for adults and young people. He has previously worked in the publishing and higher education sectors.
Lucy Kinsella, Event Manager, Festival Republic
Lucy has close affiliations with the city of Leeds, despite growing up in Spain. Having graduated with a degree in Events Management, from Leeds Metropolitan University, Lucy is now the Event Manager for Leeds Festival. Lucy began her career in festivals and events with Festival Republic in 2013 and has since worked across a multitude of events, now concentrating on Latitude and Leeds Festivals. Lucy is driven by being part of a team that creates and puts on large scale events in a safe environment and is excited to contribute to the growth and development of the FACT with like-minded colleagues.
Lynn Taylor: Reading Services Manager, Change, Grow, Live
Lynn Taylor is the Services Manager for Change Grow Live’s Recovery Service in Reading. With twenty-six years of experience in the social care sector she has worked within Mental Health, Learning Disability, Homelessness and Substance Misuse services. Lynn has also volunteered with the Welfare Service at Reading Festival for the last 9 years.
Millie Morris: Senior Marketing Manager, Festival Republic
Millie has worked in the live events industry for almost a decade. She is currently a Marketing Manager at Festival Republic, focusing on Reading and Leeds as well as Finsbury Park. She works in tandem with a number of teams at Festival Republic to ensure messaging surrounding safety, welfare, and more is communicated effectively.
Charlotte Oliver, Licensing Coordinator for Reading Festival, Festival Republic
Charlotte has been working within Festival’s since she was old enough. Starting as a Steward, her passions for Event Operations found her following a career in Festival Licensing at Festival Republic. It is now her job, along with colleagues to ensure the Festival is License compliant. However, on top of this takes gride pride in ensuring Reading is not just a successful event but a safe one too. Charlotte takes great pride and satisfaction from working with Multi-Agencies and collaborating to achieve this goal. Charlotte is proud to be part of FACT and all that it has achieved over the years. Likewise, looking forward to being a part of the next steps.
Holly McClenaghan: Marketing Assistant, Festival Republic
Holly is in the early stages of her career in the live events industry. She is currently the Marketing Assistant at Festival Republic, focusing on the screen and poster messaging across all of the shows. She has a budding enthusiasm for the progressive communication campaigns for festivals, particularly around the safety of festival goers.
Imogen McHarg: Health Improvement Specialist (Drugs and Alcohol), Leeds City Council
Imogen is a public health specialist in Drugs and Alcohol, in Leeds, with a background in drug policy development and public health data analysis. She currently works on a range of projects and initiatives (including campaigns), using data to design local interventions that reduce the harms of drug and alcohol use and prevent drug and alcohol-related deaths. She has experience in providing advice to the UK Government on drug-policy and legislation, from her time working with the Advisory Council of the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), who carry out in-depth inquiries into aspects of drug use that are of national concern and publish evidence-based reports to inform the Home Secretary.
