Hear about the festival, the show and the site compound before the hire is booked
A festival is announced months ahead and its licence application sits on the council's register for weeks, and a works contract is published with the winner named before the compound goes up. We tell you which events, contracts and venues are at that point, and which company to ring.
Last week in numbers
In the daily files from 5 to 11 November 2026, businesses that took on premises, changed hands or were about to, graded A or B for an event hire desk: 0 across Great Britain, 0 of them opening or about to and 0 just moved in or under a new owner. 0 came with a landline to ring. 0.0% of them could not have been flagged by a service working from Companies House alone: the premises isn't the registered office, or nothing new was on the register.
| Region | Rows graded A or B | Opening or about to | Moved in or new owner | With a landline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Midlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| East of England | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| London | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| North East | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| North West | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Scotland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| South East | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| South West | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wales | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| West Midlands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Counted from the daily files dated 5 to 11 November 2026, the seven days to the latest file, as they were read on 11 November 2026. Each event is counted once, on the first file it reached.
Had your free fortnight? Subscribe here and the files carry on: a region for £250 a month, and you can stop at any month's end. You choose the region and what you sell at the checkout.
One row a week, free
Not ready for a fortnight of files? Have one of the week's rows for your region each Friday, the one we'd ring first, free, for as long as you like. The full file has every row, every weekday.
Why timing matters
An organiser books marquees, toilets, power and staging in the weeks before an event, and a contractor sets up welfare cabins, fencing and generators before the works start. Both show early if you know where to look. An application for a premises licence has to be advertised at the site for 28 days from the day after it's made (the Licensing Act 2003 premises licence regulations of 2005), the local papers name a festival, a show or a market weeks or months ahead, and every public contract award is published on Contracts Finder or Find a Tender with the winner named. We read all three every day, match the organiser, the venue or the winner to the company register, grade each row for a hire desk and tag it with what it points to: marquees, toilets, power, staging, fencing or welfare.
What we tell you
The moments that matter for you:
| Coming | A business is about to open: a licence applied for, a unit being fitted out, a new company set up to trade from the address. |
| Changed hands | A new operator at premises that were already trading: a pub, shop or care home under new ownership, often keeping the old name on the door. |
| An event coming | A festival, show, fair, market, parade, fireworks display, race, exhibition or conference is planned nearby: a premises licence applied for, the local news, or the event's own site. The organiser books its suppliers in the weeks before, the row names the organiser or the venue where it's a company, and each desk's file carries the kinds of event that buy from it, with the job named. |
How to use it
Ring the events and the contract winners first, in date order, then the venues opening or under a new owner. The job column says what you'd offer before you ring, and the reason column says why now. An event's expected size is in the row where the source gave it.
If you'd rather email than ring
Each daily file can come with the emails already written: one for each business with a mailbox of its own, saying what has just happened there and what you do, in your words. Click it, read it and send it from your own mailbox, so any reply comes straight to you. We draft the wording from your website and you change anything you like. It's part of the price.
The same file by region, with last week's count for each: the East Midlands · the East of England · London · the North East · the North West · Scotland · the South East · the South West · Wales · the West Midlands · Yorkshire and the Humber
Coverage
The national registers cover every council in Great Britain. On top of those, 98 councils publish a business rates list we can use and 75 a licensing register (as of 12 November 2026), and more are added each week. Northern Ireland isn't in the file yet. Where the data comes from.
Built for selling within the rules: businesses not people, every row with its source and date, and nothing your team can't explain to someone who asks. How it's done.
Questions
Do you know what they've already booked?
No. That isn't public. We tell you the event or the site, the company behind it, the date where the source gave one, and what it points to. Whether it's booked is the first question on the call.
How is this different from buying a list?
A list is a snapshot of businesses that exist. This is what changed yesterday: who moved in, who took over, who left. A bought list can't tell you any of that, and it's out of date the day it arrives.
How do you find them?
From public registers, read every day and kept, so we can see when something changes at an address. The sources are on the sources page. How we put them together is ours, and we don't publish it.
Is there personal data in it?
Almost none. The file is about businesses and premises: no director names, no home addresses. Where a business publishes only a named address on its own website, the daily file carries it in a marked column, as the privacy notice says; a sample never does. Where a phone number or a mailbox is public, we say where it came from.
Can we email or ring them?
Limited companies and LLPs can be emailed without prior consent under PECR, if you say who you are and give a way to opt out. Phone numbers are yours to screen against the TPS and CTPS before you ring.
Do we have to ring them?
No. Each daily file can come with the emails already written, one for each business with a mailbox of its own, in your words, for you to send from your own mailbox. We draft the wording from your website, you change anything you like, and it's part of the price.
What does it cost?
£250 a month for a region, or £1,000 a month for the whole of Great Britain, monthly, and you can stop at any month's end. The first two weeks are free, so your team can try it on real rows before paying anything.
Is the file exclusive?
Not the whole file, but you can have a head start. First look sends your trade's new rows for your region to you each morning, a working day before anyone else in your trade gets them, for one firm per trade and region: £375 a month for a region, or £1,500 a month for Great Britain, on the same terms.
How do event hire companies find new customers? The guide, and the other ways weighed up. Other suppliers: Card terminals and tills · Business water retailers · Energy suppliers and brokers · Commercial waste · Business telecoms and broadband · Fuel cards, telematics and vehicle leasing · Security and fire installers · Security services: guarding, keyholding and patrols · Pest control and food safety · Signmakers and shopfitters · Commercial insurance brokers · Commercial finance brokers and lenders · IT support and managed service providers · Commercial cleaning and facilities · Payroll, HR and pensions providers · Staffing and recruitment agencies · Solar and energy efficiency installers · Health and safety and fire risk consultants · Catering equipment and commercial kitchens · Office removals and office furniture · Managed print and office equipment suppliers · Commercial property agents and surveyors · Commercial laundry and linen hire · EV charging installers