Stuart Galbraith

IMPACT INTERNATIONAL: UK/EURO HONORS

Stuart Galbraith

CEO, Kilimanjaro Live

Remembering What’s Most Important

Stuart Galbraith likes to mountaineer, scuba dive and sail in his free time, of which there wasn’t much in 2022. What all three of those pursuits have in common is, according to the promoter, “you have to plan, you have to always have an escape route, an option B, and also recognize that you can only do what conditions will allow you to do. On occasions, you just have to accept you can’t do it, and you come back, and you fight another day.”

Galbraith speaks with a calm voice, even now, after one of the busiest periods in Kilimanjaro Live’s history, realizing close to 750 new and postponed shows coming out of the pandemic, including Ed Sheeran’s UK stadium run, two Stereophonics homecoming shows in Wales – which alone sold 100,000 tickets – plus many more tours and festivals in Kili’s portfolio.

Shows that add to Galbraith’s highlight-filled career, which includes, but is certainly not limited to, three nights of Red Hot Chili Peppers at Hyde Park in front of a quarter-million people (2004); heading Live 8 in Hyde Park (2005); creating the traveling rock festival Sonosphere (2009) that toured Europe from Istanbul to Helsinki; forming Kilimanjaro Live (2008); and culminating in the biggest tour in history, “Divide” by Ed Sheeran (2017-19), who’s been with Kili ever since starting out in dingy grassroots clubs across the UK.

And while Galbraith is proud of all these achievements, he emphasizes that he’s “most proud of the team that we have at Kili,” a team that has grown to more than 110 people. And he reminds everyone that, ultimately, “Health and family are the most important things in the world. The job is a means to an end. In the last three years, everything has been brought into sharp focus. And real pressure is working in a hospital, real pressure is dealing with life-and-death situations.”