Descending from a long line of circus performers, it’s no surprise that Julia went into the entertainment industry.  Her grandmother and great grandmother were magicians and her great uncle George an elephant trainer with Bostock & Wombwell’s circus until it folded in the 1930’s.

 

“When I was about 9 or 10 I used to create shows and put them on in front of my whole school.  Usually these would have some kind of circus theme and I’d dress up my friends as lions and acrobats and get them to perform.  I’d do the make-up, costumes, stage sets, choreography and script the whole thing.  I don’t know how I managed to get our head teacher to agree to let everyone miss class to attend these productions but I guess that was my first foray into selling a creative idea!”

Julia started her media career at ITV where she managed music bookings and coordination of 3 Royal Variety Performances and worked across light entertainment programmes such as Barrymore and Live From The Palladium. 

This led to 10 years working in radio where she was responsible for cross platform content campaigns and events at national radio stations including Magic, Absolute, Kiss, Kerrang!, Planet Rock, Capital and Radio X.

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She also spent 5 years running a successful music, PR and events company where she managed a number 1 selling classical vocal group, produced inner city music festivals The Camden Crawl and Hinterland Festival and specialised in music PR for rock bands.

In recent years Julia reinvigorated the Telegraph Ski & Snowboard Festival which attracts 20,000 visitors to its home in Battersea park, introducing new entertainment features and partnerships.

She also produced The Telegraph’s Stella Live at The Saatchi Gallery in May 2019 which featured over 100 speakers including Davina McCall, Fearne Cotton and Jo Brand and lifestyle, fashion and beauty brands such as Nails Inc, The Beauty Edit Mayfair and The British Beauty Council.

 

The Managerie was founded in 2019 brings together all of Julia's experience in entertainment and media under one roof:

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“We can learn a lot from the circus about the fundamental principles and challenges of running an entertainment business… putting on and promoting an event, the creativity, logistics, travel, negotiation, partnerships, finances.  The Managerie is a nod to my heritage but also to my own collection of skills, resourcefulness and weird and wonderful experiences”

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