We just had a meeting, the last one before the festival happens. Only seven committee members could make it, so many people were busy. It was a short meeting, where a few key things were discussed – money, the opening event, signs. We were left feeling there seemed to be almost nothing left to do for the next week. I’ve felt those moments in the past, a quiet space before an event where you can be lulled into thinking, ‘…surely it’s all going to go really, really well’.
Well, we’d like to think so, but there were enough nervous faces to really describe what’s going on. Here’s a group of volunteers from Banff
And it is reasonable to ask what a festival’s job is. If you don’t normally get involved with whatever it is – art, football, fishing, music - it can easily seem an indulgence for the enthusiasts. But public events have a number of useful purposes. Festivals provide you with a moment to look up from the daily grind and remind yourself of the good qualities about where you live, and who you live beside. It gives you a moment to try something new, to just look and see, or maybe get hands on. Done well, a festival can give a community a sense of pride and distinctiveness that little else can. It can give a moment where for at least one weekend the High Street doesn’t seem deserted because everyone is away at a shopping centre or multiplex.
But it’s only once a year, it’s gone in a few hours. A festival like ours isn’t the answer to economic decline, we know that – but it can be a spur to tourism, bringing visitors. And maybe they’ll tell their friends and come back to stay longer next time. A festival like Coast can also be the spur to cultural activity. There are examples across the UK and beyond of arts events and artists moving into areas that over the years created a slow-burn growth in enriching places, helping them find a new identity and a new sense of purpose. Perhaps most of all this year it can be a community cross-over point, where organisations and their people talk to each other in ways they otherwise would never do.
The job for Coast 2011, in Year One for the community-led event, was to follow on from a great deal of expectation, built up by public funding. That often used word – sustainability - was mumbled darkly in the first meetings. We don’t have a lump of money, so how to we make it possible for it to happen, not only this year, but every year? And funding for non-essential things isn’t going to get any better for a long time. So, the route we took was, as far as possible, to have each event running independently. There is no deep central pool of money or staff time to dip your bucket into – each event must be there because someone, some group in the community, wants it to be there. But as a greater group we have a ‘glue’ that holds the event together, we do two main things: organise some events, such as free workshops so there are activities, plenty to do; and we all join together in fundraising, publicising and marketing the festival.
Where will Coast go from here? I’d really only like to think about that after this weekend, but if I have to I’d say we may have created an open space, a forum where something will continue to happen, and it’s up to everyone to see it go forward. Often in community events there’s a small group of constantly exhausted people who have any ‘Big Society’ selflessness drained out of them. But, with more people involved, the weight is spread and we not only have a greater consensus, but more sustainability – there’s that word again.
There is no fixed structure for Coast that will cause new proposals to be rejected out of hand, but only a few simple guidelines – will your event fit into a festival, is it aimed at and/or from the community, are you going to deliver it? We’d love to see more ideas coming forward, people coming with events, with the offer of venues, ways of raising funds, or other resources we haven’t even thought of yet that will make a big difference to Coast 2012.
We’ve had words of support for future events from the professional arts organisations in the north east, and this year many artists are making artwork and getting involved for no financial return – but it’s the people who meet round the table once a month who will make Coast happen. Within the last generation we’ve lost a lot of the cultural events that came from the rhythms of nature, naturally generated festivals in the spring, harvest time and mid-winter. There is a real void in a community if it never takes a moment to actively enjoy the fruit of its creative labour.
There’s going to be a public meeting in a couple of weeks, why don’t you come along? It’s more fun than you think.
