Festivals - a passing phase?

''Expect the unexpected.’’

''Be true to your roots.’’

''Never patronise your audience.’’

These are just some of the useful tips given at the Festival Peak talk by Jenny Howard-Coombes and Cathryn Peach. Both festival organisers talked about the trials and tribulations of their work but also the rewards of putting art into action.

Jenny is a part of the team that organises Hull's Freedom festival which attracts up to 140,000 people a year, it’s safe to say that she and her team definitely know the recipe for success. She talked to the audience about how the event was ‘‘born out of a need for something creative and cultural’’ to commemorate the anti-slavery work of Hull native William Wilberforce and others – and thus the Freedom festival was born.

Cathryn works as part of a different kind of festival named Just So. This specialises in camping and outdoor activities, inviting up to 6,000 people to join in. Unlike the city-based Freedom festival, this is located in the countryside. It was great to see the comparison between these two different festivals.

An event at the 2016 Freedom Festival in Hull.

At both the beginning and end of the talk the audience was asked whether they thought festivals as a whole were a dying concept. 

The answer was a unanimous no. 

 

Natalie Worledge

Is everybody reading?

During an informative talk on Leicester Art Festivals, I've learnt how such events do so much to share information and showcase local artists.

There were several speaker but I was particularly interested in what Juliet Martin had to say about the Everybody's Reading Festival.

She explained that when reports in 2009 suggested that primary schoolchildren weren't interested in books, Leicester schools got in touch with her company. They talked through ideas and Everybody's Reading was borm.

One of the many events held is 'Author's week' when children get to meet the authors of books they're encouraged to read. In 2016, 5000 children attended. Everybody's Reading has opened to a wider audience and now aims at anyone without access to a library. It's probably the greatest reading festival in the region.
 
In a light-hearted, the audience was asled how to market festivals to a wider public, and particularly to university students. A student in the audience brought up the issue that while many festivals have an educational purpose, as a student she'd choose a festival where she coold relax and neglect education for a while.
 

Megan Louise

Festival of happiness

Rock in Rio is a different kind of music festival. Its main goal is to create happiness among visitors. 

At the talk about the festival, I was surprised to learn that all entertainment was completely free, although tickets are required and food is sold. The organisers have cut the limit of how many people can attend; this was done to prevent overcrowding and to make the experience better. I think this is a very bold move, and not a bad one.
 

It was also great to see an ATM turned into a karaoke machine that gave away free tickets for Rock in Rio, and to know that if one person was singing, it would give out two tickets to encourage sharing and love. 

If I ever find myself in Brazil, I definitely want to visit.

Dominique Slatter.

Greening festivals

With the festival sector becoming one of the most talked about topics in recent years, it was fitting that De Montfort University's Cultural eXchanges Festival was host to a talk on the sustainability of such events.

With the economy at fault for many smaller festivals lacking the resources to keep running, a large amount are forced to close down. Paradoxically, the larger festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds are booming, with a price rise of roughly 15% each year, yet selling out all the same.

The focus of this talk was Green and environmental issues with regards to outdoor festivals, and whether or not such problems could be putting these events at risk.

Included on the panel of speakers was Ben Challis, a founding member of the Greener Festival Awards. His scheme to recognise the efforts of festivals around Europe towards the goal of increasing efficiency has proved very successful so far, with much improvement by the majority of festivals that have joined in with the campaign. Still, Challis conceded that the uphill battle has only just begun.

He also claimed that the most recent objective has been to work with festival attendees as much as organisers through schemes such as Love Your Tent. A common misconception is that tents left on festival sites at the end of a weekend are recycled or given to charities. The truth is that it is often impossible to do either, especially when the tents in question are damaged.

Chris Johnson of Shambala Festival chose to focus on power and CO2. He claimed that the cost of power is one of the main reasons that smaller festivals are struggling.

A question and answers session brought up more issues of efficiency. One audience member asked whether we can really be efficient at festivals, as they are a time of celebration and having a good time rather than cutting back. Challis answered that whereas there is a minority of festival goers who are almost anti-environmental in their actions, most people at festivals are either conscious of such matters or open to persuasion.

In a debate way too expansive for so short a space of time, the panel could be forgiven for only scratching the surface of the topic, yet their knowledge was more than enough to make for an intriguing hour.


Jack Arkell