10.53am and the unmistakable sound of Daniel Bedingfield’s debut single Gotta Get Thru This was audible on the waterfront at Everton’s Hill Dickinson Stadium. York Knights’s team coach pulled up, and the disembarking squad were immediately greeted by the Top Tier Brass band’s opening offering.
Scores of hardcore fans, some clutching plastic pint glasses despite the hour, gave vocal approval to their heroes and pink plumes of smoke appeared. Super League’s 20th Magic Weekend was informally under way.
And with that, for Katy Graham and Joe Steel, leaders of RL Commercial’s marketing and communications teams, nervous expressions suddenly gave way to half-smiles. Full relaxation won’t come until Sunday night – there is much still to oversee – but at least the storm had started.
Graham is, and has been since 2023, Magic’s conductor. By late morning on day one, her pedometer had already recorded 10,000 steps thanks to several hours dashing around ensuring that everything was just as it should be.
Flag poles were assembled, bibs dished out and sound tests conducted. All of that (plus much more) was completed while she was being pulled in every direction by requests from both the 20-plus event WhatsApp groups and just about everyone who happened to pass her in person.
She and all on site were working towards a collective aim: putting on a show for an expected combined crowd of 80,000 – comfortably surpassing the previous best of 68,276 in 2016 at St. James’ Park – due to attend Magic’s six Liverpool-based games.
“Show” was the operative word. “The objective is to put the ‘magic’ back into Magic Weekend,” Steel had told The Observer on event eve. It is not so much that Magic was flagging, but with Super League’s expansion to 14 teams ahead of this season, there were doubts about whether it would continue.
Instead, there was, following the success of England rugby league’s Ashes Test last year at Everton’s new home, a doubling-down of efforts. If the Challenge Cup Final is for the sport’s traditionalist, and the Super League Grand Final offers an under-the-lights season finale, Magic is, as Graham put it, as much about “tapping into other audiences” as maintaining those already hooked.
With that in mind, the rapper Example entertained Saturday’s crowd, while Sunday spectators will enjoy a Jax Jones set. Throughout the day, a buzzing Fan Plaza was awash with replica shirts of all colours, while kids (and some grown-ups) took on the various interactive rugby league challenges set up. Inside the ground, any supporter catching one of the 250 specially prepared yellow match balls was allowed to take it home.
Each element was designed to enhance the fun and flair of Magic. “The cross-section between sport and entertainment is often blurred these days,” Steel said. “At most sporting events now, fans expect added value other than just what’s happening on the pitch. Clearly rugby league is a high-octane, fast-paced, big-hitting sport, but fans expect more and that’s what we’ve tried to deliver.”
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However, amid the entertainment, the fact that competitive fixtures, with valuable league points on offer, are played at Magic is far from lost. “It is our most playful event, but that is balanced with maintaining the sporting integrity,” Steel added.
On opening York’s dressing-room doors, that much became immediately obvious. The smell of Deep Heat was overwhelming, and, in every corner, elite athletes were preparing their bodies to be pushed to the edge. Strapping was applied, calves were rubbed and Olbas Oil inhaled to help clear the airways.
Next door, the match officials set themselves up to treat the 80 minutes ahead as they do every other regular fixture. For referee Tara Jones, that included changing alongside the plastic duck mascot gifted to her when she left her previous role at a Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs school. It serves as a gentle reminder to keep her equilibrium.
In the stands, sold-out hospitality and general admission areas aside, supporters could move freely, allowing fans of those playing at a particular time to gather behind the posts. Anyone believing that a neutral venue would dampen the partisan nature of a sporting crowd would have changed their mind upon hearing the hostile reception received by the Hull FC players from rival Hull KR supporters on arrival.
Away from those moments, though, there is little ‘standard’ about Magic, so meticulous planning is required to ensure each triple gameday runs smoothly. Saturday’s schedule ran to three pages containing a line-by-line, minute-by-minute breakdown. Kit-van arrivals were on a strict schedule, as were pyrotechnic displays, deliveries of pre-match ice and 25 pizzas to each dressing room (three permanent and one temporary) post-match.
All of the effort, all the detail, is worthwhile because it results in everyone leaving with their own magic memories. The Year 10 girls of John Fisher CVA and Liberty Academy respectively will forever talk about the time they opened Magic as part of the Girls Champion Schools Final match, while for Graham, the highlight came at half-time during Saturday’s afternoon’s Hull derby. Hull KR defeated Hull FC 26-12, while in the opening game, York ran in seven tries in a 36-24 win over Huddersfield Giants before Leigh Leopards beat Warrington Wolves 24-6 in Saturday’s final match.
When 200 players from the Community Integrated Care Learning Disability Super League began their exhibition games, she took a moment to stop amid the relative chaos. “There is just something about it that makes you proud to be rugby league,” she said. “If you’re on the pitch and you have a rugby shirt on, you are treated like royalty.”
Then she was off again. Graham and her colleagues will stop only once the final klaxon of Sunday’s showdown between Wigan Warriors and St Helens has been sounded.
Photograph by Gary Calton for The Observer