Starting a festival is hard work, says Sue Finn, but the rewards are worth it
GONG Festival 2011 will be a first on a number of levels. It will be the first Indonesian cultural festival to be held on Tyneside and also the first festival I’ve ever directed. I’ve done it in theory (I have an MA in Cultural Management) but not in practice, and there’s nothing quite like doing it for real. It’s scary but exhilarating. Gamelan at Play was set up as a community interest company in November 2009, to work with individuals and organisations to strengthen community cohesion. Gamelan brings people together in a co-operative way, making it a particularly effective form of community music. It is accessible to people of all ages and abilities, and for many participants in our projects this is the first experience they have ever had of playing a musical instrument.
The past two years have seen an increase in the number of Gamelans in the North East and ‘GONG Festival 2011: Gathering of the Northern Gamelans’ was conceived as a way of bringing them together. Starting a new festival in the current climate may seem more than a bit of a challenge, but not having all of the money at the start of the project was not a huge barrier. The risks were minimised by working with a range of funders and partners.
Ideas for the festival began to be explored in May/June 2010, and programme planning began in November 2010, once we heard we had been successful in our bid for Arts Council England Lottery funding. We applied for a relatively small sum of money as we felt that would increase our chances. Whether that helped I can’t be sure, but I believe our bid was strengthened by the number of cultural partnerships that the festival could demonstrate. Working with others makes sense in relation to Gamelan, as playing is very much a shared experience. Developing links with The Sage Gateshead, BALTIC, Gateshead Council, Gem Arts and others was an easy jump. Not so easy, though, is the reality of accommodating the speed at which other organisations work. Gamelan at Play is pretty much just me so decisions can be made quickly, but where those decisions involve others it has sometimes brought about frustrations and delays.
The Indonesian Embassy invited me to a meeting and then offered to help support the festival and to work on a campaign together to celebrate the bicentenary of relations between our two countries. The Embassy is bringing a greater range of artists to the festival than had originally been planned, meaning the cultural offer will be that much richer. As a result of the Embassy’s involvement, Gateshead Council showed greater interest and support, as the Festival is acting as a catalyst for establishing and deepening international links. UK Trade and Investment also got involved, which brought in further sponsorship and broader connections. It’s a win-win situation as we are all keen to see this become an annual event. The relationship with the Indonesian Embassy is developing into a strong foundation for future support for the festival.
In terms of internal management processes, we had to be sure we had robust systems in place at Gamelan at Play before starting work on the festival to ensure solid foundations – e.g. reviewing our privacy statement, data management and ticketing systems, and updating our database. Realising the importance of having a marketing strategy and brand identity, we hired a freelance PR & Communications professional who specialises in publicity for the live music and events industry. We commissioned a festival logo and design elements from a creative agency we had worked with before. We have also made full use of the skills our experienced board members bring to the table – from marketing expertise to financial management – and Indonesian student volunteers from Newcastle University will be working with us during the festival, which will be an enormous help and brings with it cultural advantages too.
When I finished my MA three years ago I hoped to get an arts administrator type of post. Instead, what I have done is create a company delivering work that I believe in and, almost by accident, developed a festival.