Team Love has become a fundamental part of Bristol’s thriving events calendar, recognized for hosting some of the city's most significant and well-regarded live events. These include the May bank holiday weekend festival Love Saves The Day, the summer-ending Forwards Festival, and the cherished Autumn night event Simple Things. It’s hard to envision the city's festival scene without their influence.
Co-founders Tom Paine and Dave Harvey, who have been friends since the early 2000s, started Team Love in 2008. At that time, they were both integral to the local music scene—Paine organizing events at various venues such as the now-closed Motion, while Harvey led Futureboogie Recordings, a local record label.
Paine had already been involved with Glastonbury’s Dance Village since the early 2000s. However, it was an unexpected call from Harvey regarding a friend’s 'igloo' tent — a dome featuring 360-degree projection mapping created by the same team behind the free parties he attended in Shropshire as a youth — that set them on a path to success. This igloo would eventually secure them a gig at Glastonbury in 2008, and they quickly established a company name to facilitate payment.
“We used to say it all the time, like, ‘Team Love,’” Harvey reminisces. “It came about out of necessity.”
“Then we got a cheque from Glastonbury signed by Michael Eavis,” Paine adds. “We debated whether to cash it since it was signed by Michael Eavis, but we really needed the money, so we did.”
Today, they share memories shaped by years of muddy fields, tight schedules, and unforeseen moments of magic. Team Love honed their skills by co-producing the now-famous WOW stage at Glastonbury before capturing the attention of Bristol’s new placemaker Mike Bennett, who was developing projects to enhance the city’s profile and attract investment. In partnership with street artist Inkie, they produced See No Evil, a significant street art and music event on Bristol’s Nelson Street, an initiative whose effects are still felt in the city's visual culture.
“See No Evil was probably where we transitioned from being seen as ‘young idiots’ to being recognized as capable of delivering something substantial and safe,” Harvey reflects. “And it helped that we complied with the council's requests.”
Team Love's longstanding legacy truly took shape when someone at Bristol City Council, impressed with their work on See No Evil and its subsequent block party, asked: “Why doesn’t Bristol have a proper music festival?”
“We had been pondering that for years,” Paine replies. “We were organizing large parties at Motion with Just Jack playing house music and RUN doing drum and bass. We thought, ‘If we combine these shows with a capacity of 2,000 in a park over several stages, that’s 10,000 people, right?’”
This led to Love Saves The Day, the first major multi-genre music festival Bristol had since the Ashton Court Festival ended in 2007. Its debut in Castle Park in 2012 was a surprising success, in a way.
“It was really a case of confidence born from ignorance,” Harvey jokes.
“I’ll admit it,” Paine laughs. “I created a P&L estimating we’d sell about 4,000 tickets to break even, and we ended up with 9,500 tickets sold but lost £40,000… If we had known what we know now, we probably wouldn’t have started, but our ignorance was bliss, so we had nothing to lose.”
Love Saves The Day found its ideal venue at Eastville Park from 2015 until 2019, where its capacity grew from 10,000 to 22,500 per day before shifting to Ashton Court in 2022 after a brief hiatus due to the pandemic.
“Ashton Court holds significant meaning for both of us,” Harvey remarks. “I used to travel from Leicester to attend events there, so returning feels quite nostalgic.”
However, moving to a complex historical site was not straightforward. In 2022, adverse weather conditions plagued the site, an ongoing challenge for the team.
“The one that always gets us is Massive Attack,” Paine recalls with a sigh, remembering the heavy rain during the trip hop group’s homecoming shows in Clifton Down in 2016 and again in 2024. “The conditions for both shows were terrible, but we hope everyone enjoyed themselves. That shows the dedication of everyone involved.”
Nonetheless, Team Love has consistently found ways to persevere, driven by a sense of responsibility that feels increasingly rare in today’s corporate festival landscape. Their deep ties to Bristol—its people and politics—permeate their efforts, although they approach it with characteristic modesty.
“In the beginning, it felt like we needed to demonstrate that we were a positive addition to the city rather than being exploitative,” Harvey reflects. “I grew up attending free
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A key element of Bristol’s vibrant events schedule, Team Love has become closely associated with some of the largest and finest live events in the city. From the