Damien Comerford is the Business Development Manager for Major and Special Events at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and Domain. Since joining the Garden in 2014, he has led large scale activities like concerts, festivals and sporting events.
How have events changed at the Garden this year? The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the major events industry. My focus right now is finding new, safe and innovative ways to facilitate the major events that we have grown accustomed to seeing in the Garden and Domain. Longer term it's all about the continued development of our venues to facilitate as varied a programme of events as possible.
What motivates you? Booking such an iconic and historically significant venue is a privilege. Getting to work with the world’s leading event producers, promoters and artists as a result is pretty motivating.
What is your favourite thing about your job? Standing at the sound desk in the centre of the Domain as the stage lights come up, the headline artist hits the first note of their opening track, and in that split second 30,000 people move as if they were one big living organism. There is nothing quite like it.
What is your most memorable moment working at the Garden? That’s a tough one, there are many that spring to mind. Midnight Oil’s Armistice Day concerts in the Domain were a standout, as was the first time I saw Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour.