EST’s pre-tour planning is renowned throughout the industry, with many promoters only confirming the tours of major stars (including Beyonce, Barbara Streisand, Paul McCartney) when EST has deemed it logistically feasible. Testament to their logistical prowess, EST has not missed a show in 35 years, crucial in a sector where show cancellations can lead to serious financial implications.   

“Congratulations Edwin Shirley, both [ESS and EST] of you have always been good to me. Good luck for the future”

Paul McCartney, 1994   

Due to the download revolution, the music industry has seen an increase in the frequency of band touring and a considerable increase in venue demand. Limited availability of venues has meant rethinking traditional tour routings. To overcome this, trucks are regularly double, triple and even quadruple driven between venues, requiring complex organisation.  Given many tours typically have 20 trucks, this can now mean up to 80 drivers are required for one run. Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet 2008 Tour (16 shows and over 1.25 million miles) was particularly challenging; EST supplied the transportation and logistical management for the 26 main production trucks, 2 teams of 10 advance production trucks and 56 trucks containing four duplicate staging systems provided by ESS. This required a huge amount of coordination involving 108 drivers, managing ATA carnets, border clearances and import and export paperwork. ESG will repeat this challenge for 29 additional shows in 2009.  

“thank you to everyone on your side, especially Spike who was incredibly helpful on our end.  The success of this tour was certainly a group effort!!”

 Live Nation M Tours, Madonna Sticky and Sweet World Tour 2008