Arcade & Event Hire UK – Personal Service

About Us – The Story Behind Pinball Alley

Pinball Alley began not as a business, but as a shared passion between two longtime friends — Mark and Geoff.

We’d both worked separately in the events and creative industries for years, always supporting each other’s projects, but never officially teaming up. That changed with a letter… and a pier.

We both had working relationships with Glastonbury Festival, and in 2016, we wrote a letter to the organisers. It simply said:
"Pinball and your artists – past and present – have a long, electric history."

That letter sparked something. We were invited to bring pinball machines to West Holts and Leftfield, creating a self-financed setup that, while popular, stretched our time, money, and resources to the limit. We agreed it might be our last year at the festival… but the idea had already taken hold.

There was a spark, and we couldn’t ignore it.
Out of that spark, Pinball Alley was born — a space where vintage entertainment, creativity, and pure fun come together.

Since then, we've grown from one DIY pinball tent into one of the UK’s go-to names for arcade and vintage game hire, bringing joy to weddings, festivals, brand activations, film sets, and private events nationwide.

Our Glastonbury Story

After 2017, we made the tough decision to step away from Glastonbury. It had been an amazing experience, but the reality was that it cost us a lot — in both time and money. We were self-financing everything, and as much as we loved being there, it just wasn’t sustainable.

Then, in 2019, the phone rang.

“Are you at Glastonbury this year?”
Geoff replied, “Sadly… no.”
There was a pause.
“But we’re building a pier. And we need you.”

Geoff already had a wedding gig with his band, The Bikini Beach Band, so couldn’t commit. But when the call came again, Mark said, “Let’s at least see what this pier idea is all about.”

That meeting changed everything.

Leila Jones and Alex Wreckage showed us a sketch of something bold, surreal, and brilliant — a full-scale seaside pier in the heart of the festival. Not a theme or a stall — a real pier, with boards, booths, arcades, and sideshows.

We looked at each other and said, “We’ll do it… but—”
And the rest is history.

We brought Pinball Alley to the pier for the first time in 2019, and it was like nothing we’d ever done before.

Then came Covid. Glastonbury went quiet, and like everyone else, we paused.
We didn’t return to the pier until 2022, but when we did, we brought back the energy, the games, and the heart that started it all.

If you’ve visited Glastonbury-on-Sea, you’ll know — it’s not just a themed area. It’s a brilliantly mad, beautifully built pier that could live on any real shoreline. The first time we saw it, we were speechless.

They built it. We came. And we’ve been part of the pier ever since.