UEFA Champions League Final 2024
LS Events was appointed by the GLA to manage the UEFA Champions League Final’s City Operations in London. We delivered the UCLF Champions Festival across five London landmarks; Trafalgar Square, Regent Street, Somerset House, South Bank and Potters Field Park, while also organising two Fan Meeting Points for 80,000+ Dortmund and Real Madrid fans.
"We delivered the London 2024 UEFA Champions League Final Fan Festival and Club Fan Meeting Points in collaboration with the GLA and our event production partner LS Events. The LS Events team brought an unrivalled depth of industry experience and a passion for delivery which culminated in London hosting a first of its kind multi- venue international footballing fan festival in the heart of the City.
Over 400,000 visitors enjoyed the footballing and entertainment extravaganza from Regent Street, to Trafalgar Square and Somerset House to Tower Bridge during the 4 day event. This could not have been achieved without the meticulous event planning, expert problem solving and exceptional host city relationships held by the production team and leadership at LS Events. The UEFA Champions Festival is a major world class international event, and this year in London we were privileged to have signed LS Events as a seasoned industry professional to join our world class UEFA event team and bring home the UEFA Champions League Final."
Vishal Patel, Senior Manager Live Events, UEFA
High profile global sporting event
LS Events procured and managed over 100 suppliers across 7 venues, ensuring delivery and activities of high-quality events. We supported multiple clients, including the GLA, UEFA, and partner activations, while designing fan meeting points reflecting club identities. Managing venues across London, including parks and heritage sites, we handled overnight builds, implemented accessibility features, and ensured seamless operations. The project was delivered with integrity and excellence, creating a memorable event for our clients, stakeholders, sports fans, and attendees.
The UEFA Champions League Final is one of football’s most high profile events outside the World Cup, drawing fans and TV viewing figures around the globe. Hosting events such as this is hugely important for London, and Londoners, as an opportunity to showcase the city at its best and welcome international visitors.
Complex project management and event management
This was a multifaceted and highly complex event requiring failsafe, reliable management across the board to ensure seamless delivery of each element.
The multi-client, multi-site nature of the project, spread over seven iconic and instantly-recognisable London outdoor venues, added complexity across the board. Stakeholder engagement was crucial, as we navigated sensitivity and concern from city agencies around hosting a major football event, and implemented above-and-beyond measures to support safe, secure delivery.
As a result of 12 Safety Advisory Group meetings, 35 working
group meetings and three tabletops, three full premises
licence applications were secured. Our finance team
processed £5.6m funds over the lifecycle of the project.
From an advance team of 44, a further 173 freelancers were contracted for onsite delivery, and 1,908 stewards deployed through three separate stewarding contractors. The success of this project is testament in no small part to the extraordinary quality and strength in the depth of our supply chain.
Fan Experience
Central to our planning was the curation of stand-out, memorable fan experience for all who attended the Champions League Final, whichever location they visited. Visitors were not confined to football fanatics alone - we played host to wider sports fans and event seekers, as well as London locals and tourists looking for a fun day out.
We ensured the activities and activations on offer were inclusive and welcoming to fans and non-fans alike - including sensitivity around the bars and F&B (engaging an eclectic mix of traders to represent London’s cultural diversity), have-a-go activities, card trading and football skills. In taking over some of London’s biggest landmarks, ensuring the activities were accessible to anyone who wanted to come along, achieving one of the GLA and UEFA’s key objectives.
Partner Engagement
LS Events worked hand in hand with the UEFA Partnerships Delivery Team, playing a facilitating role to ensure all sponsors and partners’ obligations were met. We coordinated site design, permissions, scheduling and brand optimisation, striking a careful balance between the brands’ exposure and the fan experience for those attending.
At the same time, we worked with Attitude is Everything (AiE) to ensure all partner activations were accessible to all.
Technical Design
In producing highly detailed plans for events across seven iconic London locations, our team successfully managed an extra layer of intricacy within an already complex project. Site plans were drawn in multiple layers with in-depth operational information - for example, security deployments, crowd flow design and densities, access routes and the ingress, live event and egress stages of the events.
To bring the design and operational elements to life, we produced creative visualisation using 3D renders and flythroughs, allowing us - along with multiple clients - to scrutinise the planning and delivery of each site.
Sites were designed to be flexible and adapt to evolving requirements during the activation period - for example, Trafalgar Square was set up with an inflatable football pitch in the daytime, then reset for a concert in the evening.
“The GLA Major Sports Events team has worked with LS Events on several projects over the last few years. Most notably, the planning and delivery of the successful Champions Festival which ran alongside the UEFA Champions League Final in summer 2024. The LS Events team is a myriad of experts, all with a positive, can-do attitude. No event is ever simple; from the very early stages of planning to delivery of the vision, the LS team has shown they can think creatively, and problem solve where required.”
Laura Pierce, Head of Major Sports Events
Greater London Authority