Canterbury Tales - a 21st century tale for festivals

2014 CANTERBURY TALES

CONFERENCE FOR FESTIVALS

‘ACCESS ALL AREAS’ 23, 24 October 2014 Augustine House

2014 CanterburyTales

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Canterbury Tales

(tales for 21st century festivals) From Goodwins Court, a narrow 17th century pedestrian alleyway off St Martin’s Lane in London, the British Arts & Science Festivals Association (BAFA) leads a disparate band of festival professionals to Canterbury, home of the Canterbury Festival, the largest festival of arts and culture in the region.

Time is measured on this virtual journey, carefully planned to arrive in Canterbury for the first day of the 2014 Conference for Festivals, by a daily tale of 21st century festivals and all things festival related.

Read the tales and add your comments and experiences on the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Commissioners Tale How does this new breed, the ‘Cultural Commissioner’, operate and how do festivals assess the potential of public sector commissioning?

Measuring social value is one key area that must be addressed and as the report Opportunities for Alignment: Arts and cultural organisations and public sector commissioning suggests—explaining a festivals work in a way which resonates with commissioners is vital. Toby Lowe, Chief Executive of Helix Arts, talks about the need to ‘speak two languages’.

But let’s also look further afield – do we understand in the first place what ‘social value’ means? In the research study Cultural Value and Social Capital . Des Crilley, Chair of Kent County Council’s Strategic Group for Arts in Kent, is quoted as saying: ‘I don’t think arts and cultural organisations are able to define the impact they are able to make. They don’t trace it and make it visible. They change someone’s life and they don’t even realise.’

This is a tough tale to start with, but that’s what the Conference for Festivals is all about – no messing about, hard, relevant topics – presented in a format that encourages debate and welcomes your contribution whatever the size or nature of your festival.

Add your comments to the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page, tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Sponsors Tale How commercial is too commercial?

Way back in 2000 the BBC were already questioning if: ‘...sponsorship killed the festival spirit?’ but most of the debate around this subject has been aimed at green field music festivals –( a common mistake made with all manner of research into ‘festivals’ - more on that in future ‘takes’).

A YouGov report published in May this year stated that: ‘28% say festivals have become too corporate.’ - though again this was focussing on music festivals. But, an article on the Guardian Cultural Professionals Network clearly understood the variety within the festival sector and indeed focussed on the smaller arts festival - reporting: ‘Even the largest festivals can find it hard to attract sponsors, but for small to mid-scale festivals, often with a niche subject matter, their target audiences may be (or seem) too small to appeal to sponsors.

Alternatively, festivals simply may not be in a position to effectively manage sponsor relationships and deliver the required benefits. The question is – is it even possible for a festival that is not purely pop/rock and in a green field to be too commercial – would that that was a problem to overcome? The same Guardian article asks: ‘What is the most sustainable business model?’ and so for a conversation that started about commercial sponsorship we are back again at sustainability – of course everything leads back to this.

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES The Cultural Benchmark toolkit is one solution - it enables and equips arts and culture organisations to compare their approach to income development, cost management and overall sustainability anonymously and confidentially to others within the culture sector.

Benchmarking may not tell you if your audience think you are too ‘commercial’ but you can gauge your results against other festivals.

Sponsorship is a massive topic and we will only be dealing with it specially in a break out session – but sustainability is what the whole 2014 Conference for Festivals is about - no messing about, hard, relevant topics – presented in a format that encourages debate and welcomes your contribution whatever the size or nature of your festival.

Add your comments to the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page, tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Collaborators Tale How long can a festival exist within its own bubble? Many start off on a kitchen table and there is often far too much work involved in making the first festival happen (and the 2nd and the 3rd) to look over the horizon to see what everyone else is doing. At BAFA we heard a ‘noncollaborators tale’ of two small festivals – in towns close together programming the same Gilbert and Sullivan production. However loyal an audience – it had an impact!

Collaboration can mean many things – sharing resources such as the Tandem Programme run by the European Cultural Foundation. This is a programme that supports long-term cooperation, knowledge development and networking opportunities between cultural managers from the EU and outside the EU. It could be a Coproduction such as PASS – Cross Channel Circus. This three-year project partners eight organisations in southern England and northern France. The dual focus of the partnership is to deliver high quality contemporary circus to audiences, and support production, touring and training opportunities for local artists and professionals in the circus industry.

Or it could be Cooperation – combining together to share mutual resources such as the Cheltenham Festival model – one organisation, four extraordinary festivals!

All lead to increased knowledge and growth and of course – a better chance at a sustainable future.

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

We are investigating all these ‘co’ words in several ways at this year’s 2014 Conference for Festivals – several brand new – and ‘Cultural Speed Dating’ is just one of them. if you have a fledgling project and are looking for partners, collaborators - or even just someone to bounce the ideas off - then bring along your idea and BAFA will help you find the right people to talk to.

That’s what the 2014 Conference for Festivals is about - finding solutions – presented in a format that encourages debate and welcomes your contribution whatever the size or nature of your festival.

Add your comments to the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page, tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Audiences Tale ‘I know what I like’ How is that simple phrase to be turned around? How complex is the balancing act between alienation of existing audiences and a welcoming appeal to new ones. What we do know is that it involves programming, marketing, education, finances, outreach – in fact every aspect of running a festival or event. There is plenty of advice available on-line, not least the valuable Culture Hive with several relevant tool kits with news, training, case studies and so much more.

Canterbury Festival, host for this year’s Conference for Festivals, Prosper project took a very innovative approach: ‘Prosper was about unusual ideas, unlikely connections and untested partnerships that explore: >Social change – how collaboration can make a difference to the way people build, serve or transform their communities or organisations >Place – how collaboration can shift or encourage a different understanding of, connection to or commitment to a place >Interdisciplinary Work – how collaboration between artists from different disciplines can develop new skills and thinking and produce adventurous work’

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES The Family Arts Campaign is breaking new ground, its large scale, national collaborative programme led by the visual and performing arts sectors aims to increase levels of arts engagement by families. Doing this via three main areas of work: >Increasing the amount and range of high-quality content available >Increasing the quality of experience >Improving marketing Just these two initiative shows the huge variety of approach, and whilst so much is available on-line – to share ideas and brainstorm new ones, that’s where the face to face approach comes into its own. At the Conference for Festivals this year, day two is entirely focussed on audience development, based as it will be at the Canterbury Festival Spiegeltent, another audience development project by the festival.

Following on from a wide range of presentations looking at both the artistic and the logistic, we will use a ‘World Cafe’ style format to tease apart this topic, block by sustainable block. #festivalDNA That’s what the 2014 Conference for Festivals is about - finding solutions – presented in a format that encourages debate and welcomes your contribution whatever the size or nature of your festival or event.

Add your comments to the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page, tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES

The Access-ers Tale We know it’s more than a ramp over a step or a big print programme, but once the basics have been overcome what’s next, what shifts the perspective long term for all of us? BAFA is working with Attitude is Everything this year and their ‘5 things you can do’ is a great place to start: moving on then to their 2014 State of Access Report which shows the most common barrier to participation was: ‘the inequality of booking systems, by not allowing Deaf and disabled customers to purchase tickets in the same way as non-disabled people’.

Of course it’s more than just the audience, ISAN’s Access Tool Kit covers access for performers with guidance and check lists for the whole process and the same toolkit includes directions on working with deaf and disabled staff including volunteers and marketing to the deaf and disabled audience. Audience development is key here as well and Edinburgh Festival Fringe have produced a guide to Adapting Events Shape Arts develop opportunities for disabled artists and have an employment services page on their website. They also run training for cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people as well as participatory arts and development programmes.

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2014 CANTERBURY TALES And won’t we all most likely need some help at some point? Stage Text reports: ‘Ten million people in the UK are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing – that’s one in six of the population – and up to 70% for the oldest age groups ...

Modern technology has the potential to improve access for everyone, what do you employ to improve access to your festival, event or venue?

What experiences can you share?

That’s what the 2014 Conference for Festivals is about - sharing experiences:finding solutions – all in a format that encourages debate and welcomes your contribution whatever the size or nature of your festival or event.

Add your comments to the BAFA Facebook Conference Events page, tweet them (@BritArtsFests #festivalDNA) or bring them along in person on 23/24 October – without your input, how will we know?

Work Smarter:Stay Connected:Mean Business

2014 CANTERBURY TALES

...and so we arrive in Canterbury for the 2014 A Festival Career and the 2014 Conference for Festivals If you didn't come on our journey, tell us about yours! email: info@artsfestivals.co.uk

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