[IVFDF] Re: Content

[Mason, Richard]

Whilst I agree with Pete that there are two opposing points of view, I
would
just like to make it clear that it is very definitely not a clear
'organisers' and 'attendees' divide.  I have organised the festival 3
times
now, and I guess am one of those responsible for making the festival
bigger.
Last year for instance we put on the big concert with the Oyster Band on
the
Friday night, which was a success and significantly increased the
attendance
at the festival.  If I get to organise it again , then I would certainly
look to do something similar again.

When planning a festival like IVFDF you obviously have to look at how to
appeal to the most people possible.  As has been said by many people in
this
discussion so far, those who have been to IVFDF before will probably come
again if there is sufficient incentive - ie good bands/workshops etc which
will guarantee at least some top class events.  However for most of those
for whom IVFDF is totally new, the names of the bands will probably not
mean
a great deal. Certainly at Exeter we have a high percentage of foreign
students and people brand new to folk, and the names of the bands probably
have little impact.  What does have an impact however is the enthusiasm of
those who have been before.  If the 'old timers' are saying that IVFDF is
a
great event, and the bands this year are really worth going to, then the
'newbies' will pick up on that and seriously consider going.  The main
obstacles then are simply time and price.

To summarise, in my view you need
1) Big names to attract the experienced crowd (both attached to
universities
and not)
2) Affordable tickets
3) A good selling job from the current committee and from the 'old timers'

I guess my criteria for whether I am putting on a good festival is to
prepare an advertising leaflet which can be distributed at other festivals
around the country.  If I can put that leaflet on a table next to leaflets
for lots of other festivals, and the 'Big Names' Vs Cost equation
obviously
stacks up well, then I know that my festival will probably succeed.  If
however, it wouldn't attract me as an average punter, then I know that
something needs to improve.

My final point is one that I have made before: No matter how good or bad
your festival is, you must still advertise it strongly.  Whilst a lot of
the
responsibility for that falls on the current committee, us other 'old
timers' shouldn't shirk our share either.
Congratulations to Cambridge committee by the way - it was great to see an
advert for IVFDF in the Chippenham working programme - a lot of people
noticed, so well done!  It looks like its going to be a wonderful
festival.
For those of you who haven't seen 'Fiddling Around' yet, then take a tip -
the contra dance at Cambridge is going to be something special !


-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Humble [mailto:peet at dircon.co.uk]
Sent: 30 May 2000 19:35
To: ivfdf-news at tardis.ed.ac.uk
Subject: [IVFDF] Re: Content


I've been watching this discussion without saying much so far and I've
come
to the conclusion that there are two "opposing" points of view.

The first one, from organisers, is that it is getting too big, too
complicated and too expensive to organise and needs to be scaled down in
some way.

The second one, from festival attendees, is that it is the current format
that attracts them so much, and that they would be much less likely to
attend a scaled down festival.

>From what I know of each side, both are correct:
the only way the succeed is to keep it as it is AND the only way to
succeed
is to cut it down drastically.

I suspect that there is much discussion necessary to come to a workable
solution.  However, things that must be born in mind are: if the festival
is
cut back, it will become a very different beast, very much smaller and
probably with only people from the local area attending.  If it is to
remain
a national, reasonably sizeable event, some way has to be found of keeping
it a weekend event with sufficient events to attract people who have a
long
distance to travel.

I do, however, worry that the two sides have incompatible
desires/requirements and that one has to effectively "lose" if the other
is
to get anything approaching what they want.

Would I go to a small festival based on current IVFDF?  I might, but only
if
it were local.  To attract me to travel hundreds of miles, it would have
to
have a good couple of days of events that I wanted to participate in.

As to where it should be sited, that is less clear.  The big advantage of
it
moving from place to place is that it is "fair" - some people have a long
journey some years and a short one other years and different people take
on
the organisation.  If it is sited in one place all the time it might be
much
easier to organise because the team doing it build up expertise and
contacts, and the site becomes well known.

--
___    __o    Pete Humble, JRI Europe, Ltd
  _ \<,_      Email: peet at dircon.co.uk
 (_)/ (_)     Any resemblance between the views expressed here
============= and those of my employers is pure coincidence.


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