My Experience at BST Hyde Park: A Brilliant Reminder of Why Guest Experience Matters

This weekend I went to BST Hyde Park to see Garth Brooks, and honestly, what an incredible experience.

We had Gold HydeAway tickets, which meant we had a separate entrance into the festival, and had access to the VIP area.

Customer experience and journey was really taken into consideration at this festival. The park was signed really well, there were maps dotted around everywhere, and the app was genuinely brilliant. Throughout the day, before even going to the festival, notifications came through letting you know who was on, where to go and what was happening next. It was simple, clear and genuinely helpful, which is exactly what you need when you are dealing with crowds on that scale.

Little things like that really matter.

You could bring your own water bottle, which I thought was a great touch, especially for a full day event. Staff were friendly when scanning tickets, bags were searched quickly, wristbands were handed over, and before we knew it, we were in.

That, to me, is hospitality.

Not just in the traditional hotel-and-restaurant sense, but in the real sense. Making people feel welcomed, informed, safe, relaxed and ready to enjoy themselves.

The Gold HydeAway area itself was lovely. There was plenty of seating, chairs, its own toilets, two bars and three food vendors. It felt like a proper space to escape the crowds for a while without losing the atmosphere of the festival. It gave people somewhere to breathe, reset and enjoy the day at their own pace, which is exactly what a premium experience should do.

Although I will say this, Deva Fest still wins on toilets. And we have sofas in our VIP area, so I am claiming that one proudly too.

Joking aside, it did make me think a lot about Deva Fest and how much we focus on guest experience. When you are running a festival, people often only see the stage, the music and the headline act, but the experience is built in the details. The toilets.

The signage. The seating. The bars. The queues. The staff. The atmosphere. The ease of moving around.

Those things are not extras. They are the event.

At Deva Fest, guest experience is something we genuinely prioritise. We want people to feel comfortable, looked after and relaxed, whether they are there with friends, family, children, or making a full weekend of it. Festivals should feel exciting, but they should also feel easy. People should be able to find what they need, sit down when they want to, get a drink without feeling stressed, and enjoy the day without fighting the event itself.

BST Hyde Park was a brilliant example of how powerful that can be when it is done well.

And then there was the stage.

If you have not seen the BST Hyde Park stage, it is honestly worth looking up. It is incredible. Built around a huge tree, it blends into the park beautifully and feels like it belongs there. It does not feel like a stage that has just been dropped into a field. It feels designed for the setting, and that makes the whole experience feel more special.

The main arena was also easy to access. You simply held out your wristband and walked through into the stage area. Again, simple, clear and well managed. When you are dealing with crowds on that scale, those small moments of ease make a huge difference.

The show itself was unbelievable. Garth Brooks was incredible, the sound was amazing, the big screens worked brilliantly, and the atmosphere was something else. The support acts were brilliant too, and the whole day had that proper festival feeling where everyone is there for the same reason and the energy just builds.

For me, it was a reminder of why people still spend money on experiences.

When an event is done well, people do not just remember the artist. They remember the feeling. They remember how easy it was to arrive, how friendly the staff were, how good the atmosphere felt, how simple it was to find their way around, and how much they enjoyed the day as a whole.

If I was being picky, the only area where the hospitality fell slightly short was around the food queues and the exit at the end. Even in the Gold HydeAway area, the queues for food were quite long, and having to queue once to order and then again to collect felt a little clunky. Leaving at the end was also very busy, with thousands of people trying to move through narrow fenced exits. It did not ruin the experience at all, but it was a reminder that even the best events can still have pressure points when dealing with crowds of that size.

But overall, BST Hyde Park was a brilliant experience and a brilliant example of hospitality at scale.

It showed how much the full customer journey matters. Not just the headline act. Not just the food and drink. Not just the VIP area. But every touchpoint from the moment people arrive to the moment they leave.

The signage, the app, the staff, the wristbands, the seating, the toilets, the bars, the stage design, the sound, the atmosphere, it all adds up.

And that is the real lesson for hospitality.

Whether you are running a hotel, restaurant, pub, festival or live event, people remember how you made them feel. BST Hyde Park got so much of that right, and it made the whole day feel easy, exciting and genuinely memorable.

It also reminded me why, at Deva Fest, we will always care about the details. Because the little things are never really little. They are what turn a good day out into a great one.