Toki Allison, production coordinator at Nozstock the Hidden Valley, explains why Ella Nosworthy should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
Ella is an ultra-organised festival director, who oversees an extensive team of over 300 volunteers, working across construction, administration and production.
She makes herself available to everyone, prioritising learning opportunities for her crew and deals with all challenges in an unflappable manner. Despite a headline act pulling out two days before 2015’s festival and being eight months pregnant, she got her head down and sourced another equally credible booking a mere few hours before the festival gates opened.
She has inspired a lot of interns, who have now gone on to get roles in the arts industry and she really is the backbone of the festival and the reason it grows year on year.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
