Founding a festival is a dream many people hold. Whether your passion is for music, food, or the arts, organising a festival is an incredible way to celebrate and share that passion with others…but it’s not for the fainthearted.
As these four festival founders reveal, it takes sweat, blood and tears to get a festival off the ground. Hear how they came up their festival ideas, funded them, and ultimately grew them into successful events – including the lessons they learned along the way!
Sandra Surtees, Shewsbury FolkSandra Surtees, Shrewsbury Folk Festival
“I met my late husband at a folk festival so we had a mutual love of the music and the scene in general. When we moved to Bridgnorth in Shropshire – where the festival began – we realised it was lacking a great music event so we started our own!
“We were just so convinced it would work we just knew we had to try it. If it didn’t work, for whatever reason, at least we would have known we had given it a good shot.
“In the early days, we were both still doing our day jobs and running the festival in our spare time. Looking back now, I’m not sure how we managed. It was a few years before I gave up my job and became the full-time festival administrator. When Alan retired from his manufacturing business, he could then concentrate on programming full time.
“The festival was funded out of our own pockets. There’s no bigger motivation to succeed than that. It was about 18 months in the planning. Neither of us had any previous event, festival or music experience so it was a very steep learning curve. We literally started from scratch knowing nothing.
“Our lack of experience was a big challenge. During the first festival in 1997, we didn’t have anything in place for radio communication and we learned that lesson the hard way – I lost half a stone in weight over the weekend as I had to run around dealing with issues. That was also the weekend Princess Diana died so we had to make some quick decisions about withdrawing dance teams from public performances in the town as a mark of respect.
“There has also been the challenge of managing a move – we outgrew the Bridgnorth site and came to Shrewsbury in 2006 – and things like headliners pulling out at the last minute. All these situations, although stressful at the time, can help you learn important lessons as an event organiser, though.
“In hindsight, I would have built a bigger team around us earlier on and got younger people involved from the outset. But after more than 21 years, we’ve got a great team with a really wide skillset so we’re in a good place. We’re still learning though – every year we tweak what we do so we can deliver the best event we can. That’s the essence of a successful festival, I think.”
Credit: Mike Dean Nick Mosley, Brighton Food FestivalNick Mosley, Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival
“The Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival was one of the UK’s very first major food festivals. The original concept behind the festival was to promote the City of Brighton & Hove as a year-round gastronomic tourism destination, as well as getting more locally grown and produced food and drink onto menus.
“At the start, we had some public seed funding from Brighton & Hove City Council. This dwindled down to nothing by the time of the last recession so our income is now a combination of a partnership fee from hospitality businesses and local food and drink producers, corporate sponsorship, and a percentage of ticket sales on some events.
“Finances are always the biggest of the challenges. There is still a lot of time and energy given for free as we are all keen to ensure the success not only of the festival but also the local tourism and food economies.
“The festival was originally every September; chosen as it extended the tourism season of Brighton. It had an outdoor market element with a live food show stage, alongside lots of free children’s food activities. This was part of a week-long programme of dinners and tastings at partner restaurant and bar venues.
“Over our 15 years, the festival structure and programme has changed considerably. Around 2010, we introduced a second festival period at the start of the traditional tourism season in April, plus we began running guided bus tours to the many vineyards that are appearing in Sussex. We also developed more business-to-business activity to connect local producers with restaurants, bars, and hotels.
“2018 is the first year that we haven’t run a major outdoor event in the city, but have added more year-round event periods. We were finding that many of our core partners didn’t have the time or resources to participate in a three-day outdoor event. Hence we’ve focused on venue driven activities – whether a dinner or masterclass or a much larger indoor ‘festival’ at one of our hotel partners – alongside tours and trails.
“In my experience creating, running and maintaining a food festival is pretty much a full-time job. It certainly won’t make you financially rich but it is incredibly fulfilling – if at times incredibly stressful. It’s, without a doubt, the best way for any region to bring together their hospitality and food production industries and showcase that to the world.”
Credit: Julia Claxton Glen Moulds, HomegrownGlen Moulds, Homegrown Music Festival
“The Homegrown Music Festival concept was born in 2013. My Daughter Jade, who attended many festivals, was telling us horror stories over dinner of how some of the larger festivals are run. She complained about the extortionate prices for food and drink, incidents of people setting fire to tents for ‘fun’, and the disgusting toilets. She told us that in some cases there was a ‘drop’ where everyone shares the side of a large pit!
“My question was, ‘Then why do so many people go?’ To which she replied, “It’s the magic of the festival atmosphere.’ Then she shocked me by suggesting I should organise a festival because I treat people well and have good morals. As the owner of a well-established fitness and camping facility just outside Bury St. Edmunds, I had the space but I had never even been to a festival before.
“I started by asking some musician friends what was lacking in the festival scene. They said a homegrown festival, where only people from East Anglia could play. I then had lunch with Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet (name drop) who strongly advised me against doing a festival unless I had very deep pockets!
“So, I had my four daughters advising me to do it and a major artist advising against…of course, my daughters won, and that was the birth of the Homegrown Music Festival.
“I funded the first festival through my personal assets and an overdraft from the bank. It was a massive risk. I thought it would cost me around £3,000 to 5,000 to put a festival on – it was £44,000 and a very steep learning curve. This is our sixth year and we are about to break even. It is so exciting!
“It took us one year to put the festival together – none of us had a clue. Getting the festival passed by the local Safety Advisory Group and the council was the biggest challenge. I had to write an event management plan and it was ripped to pieces to start with, but they were very helpful and I soon had full approval to go ahead.
“Marketing was also a major challenge. I should have brought someone on board at the outset who was skilled in marketing; this is the key to a successful festival. Something that came as a surprise was the cost of hiring all the equipment, from stages, toilets, showers, marquees, flagpoles, flags and lighting. I now own all of mine so my infrastructure costs are a lot lower.”
Credit: Homegrown Music Festival Jason Jopson, Brentwood FestivalJason Jopson, Brentwood Festival
“The Brentwood Festival actually started at a local pub, The White Horse, twenty years ago. Originally a real ale festival with a bit of music on the side, it morphed into being more of a music festival with a bit of beer on the side.
“As The White Horse Festival grew, attracting as many as 5,000 people for the weekend, it simply got too big for the pub – traffic and parking became an issue for the size of the venue. After looking at other locations, we decided that the grounds of the nearby Brentwood Centre would be ideal, giving us plenty of room to expand the event.
“Moving to a larger venue and opening the now renamed Brentwood Festival to a wider audience was a huge risk, not only financially but also structurally. We had to find bigger staging, new suppliers, more staff – it was almost as if we were starting from scratch.
“The festival team – all volunteers at the time – had other jobs, so meetings had to be scheduled around everyone’s work commitments. It was really a labour of love, with everyone giving their time to make the Brentwood Festival run smoothly.
“There was always the worry about whether we’d bring in enough new festivalgoers to make the event successful. The Brentwood Festival didn’t have sponsors in the early years, so ensuring we got enough people through the doors was important. But at the same time, filling the larger space whilst keeping the intimate feeling that everyone loved at pub event was also a key priority.
“We worked with an online ticketing provider who seemed reputable but didn’t give us all of our funds after the first Brentwood Festival. We did lots of due diligence afterwards and chose Eventbrite as a trusted partner and haven’t looked back!
“We’ve also learned that it’s essential to be clear about the type of audience you’re trying to attract and programme the line up accordingly. Our aim is to attract a mature, well-behaved crowd, so after working with a variety of artists we now know that headliners like Squeeze, The Human League, Billy Ocean, UB40, and Level 42, bring in our target audience.
“Most importantly, we’ve learned that the best marketing happens at the festival. Give your audience a great experience and they’ll come back again and again.”
Credit: Brentwood FestivalLearn more about staging your first event over on the EventTribe forum, where you can ask experienced planners for help and advice. Post your questions in the ‘Getting started as an event planner’ category.
