Welcome to the 2021 BAFA conference for festivals: Rewind, Play, Forward
Here you will find more information about the conference programme, which took place online from Wednesday 24 – Friday 26 February 2021. We’re really delighted that so many of you joined us! Just to remind you that your ticket enabled you to participate live online but also to watch back any sessions post-conference.
A list of delegates who attended is available here.
Speakers’ biographies and photos are available here.
We used the platform wonder.me as a space for delegates to chat informally at specified points in the programme, although the space was open throughout the conference to arrange to meet other delegates during the conference. You can still access the wonder.me page here.
Wednesday 24th February
10am – 11am
Welcome! and Pandemic Purge
BAFA Director Fiona Goh and BAFA Chair Alexis Paterson welcome you to the Conference and encourage you to participate in a Pandemic Purge. We will encourage delegates to share the worst and best parts of 2020, using Mentimeter and the Zoom Webinar chat functions. We’ll also hear a range of festivals describe their Year in 3 minutes, including Jack Whitewood (Ventnor Fringe and Exchange), Sharon Canavar (Harrogate International Festivals), Amanda MacLeod (St Andrews Voices) and Andrew Wood (Between the Trees)
Session resources:
Watch the session here
11am – 11.15am: Pre-record: Libby Percival in conversation with Fiona Goh about Live From London – you can watch this conversation here
11.15am – 12.15pm
Artists, Streaming, Money
Sonia Stevenson chairs a panel featuring Lyndsey Fineran (Cheltenham Literature Festival), Sholto Kynoch (Oxford Lieder Festival), Robert Hollingworth (Stour Music/I Fagiolini) and Paul Smith (Voces 8 Foundation/Live from London) about their experiences of working with artists to create digital festival content, how they have reached audiences and met the challenges of monetising online content.
Session resources:
Watch the session here
I Fagiolini’s Sing the Score can be accessed here
To get involved in Polyphonic Concert Club (including gaining commission on selling tickets), contact Robert Hollingworth
Lyndsey Fineran‘s presentation is here and the short film is here
The PRS consultation on online live concerts is open until 12 March here
12.15pm – 1pm: Break
1pm – 2pm
Keynote Speaker: Martin Green
Martin Green, Chief Creative Officer for Festival UK 2022 and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and formerly Director and CEO of Hull City of Culture and Head of Ceremonies for London 2012, will talk to Jack Whitewood (Ventnor Fringe and Exchange) about the process and vision for Festival UK 2022, before taking Q&As
Session resources:
Watch the session here
2pm – 3pm
Break or Wonder.me Social Hangout
Come and meet delegates informally at BAFA’s wonder.me space, where we’ll have dedicated areas for festivals wanting to meet by artform or month, as well as open spaces for general chats
3pm – 4pm
Attitude is Everything – Opening Doors
Alison Giles (Presteigne Festival) introduces Gideon Feldman, of Attitude is Everything, to talk through the key concepts of ensuring your event is accessible for Deaf and disabled people and to answer your questions about how to make your festival more accessible.
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Attitude is Everything – Gideon Feldman’s presentation is here and the link to all AIE’s resources is here
and
3pm – 4pm
Workshop – Putting Content Online: Challenges & Solutions
What challenges do you see in creating and monetising digital content? This workshop invites members to discuss those challenges and ideate around potential solutions to them. Throughout the session, a map of all the discussed challenges and solutions will be created, and at the session’s end, a copy of this map will be given to each session participant.Leading this workshop is Drake Deaton, the founder of StageUp – a live-streaming website for performing arts communities. StageUp is based at a business incubator in South Wales called The Alacrity Foundation. Kenneth Richardson (Oundle International Festival) will chair.
Session resources:
Watch the session here
The map created by participants is available here
and
3pm – 4pm
Insurance 1:1s
BAFA partners Nick Smith of Graham Sykes Insurance and Darren Vickery of EVS Insurance are available to book 1:1 slots with delegates.
4.30pm – 8pm: Break
8pm – 9pm
Pub Quiz
You supply the pub, we supply the quiz!
Thursday 25th February
10am – 11am
Focus on Event Management
Professor Jane Ali-Knight chairs a discussion about the challenges of delivering Covid-secure physical events, and sharing experiences of how to make this happen. Health & safety advisor and presenter Matthew Tosh, freelance event manager Natasha Russell and Wimbledon BookFest Director Fiona Razvi share their experiences
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Watch Wimbledon Book Fest‘s safety video here
Government guidance for performing arts is here
Events Industry Forum’s guidance for outdoor events is here and its supplementary guidance for music festivals is here
The Purple Guide is here
11am – 11.30am: Break
11.30am – 12.30pm
After the Interval
How and when will audiences return post-Covid? What’s important to them? What are different types of audiences looking for? What does this mean for festivals? In a session chaired by Professor Jane Ali-Knight, Katy Raines of Indigo-Ltd will give an overview of the largest study of audience sentiment around Covid in the world – involving almost 300K audience responses and 600 cultural organisations. Her research has tracked audience sentiment from April 2020 and continues to do so every month – so she can give an up to date view on audience confidence levels and what are the most important safety issues for them.
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Katy Raines’ presentation is here
Baker Richards’ blog on digital pricing is here
Amanda Palmer’s TED talk on the Art of Asking is here
To participate in ongoing research through the Culture Restart Tookit, visit here
Existing results: After the Interval & Act 2 (April – August 2020) and Culture Restart Toolkit (Sept 2020 – ongoing)
12.30pm – 1.30pm: Break
1.30pm – 2.30pm
Extended Reality – Making the Future Real
Chaired by Erica Smith (Ports Fest), Dr Adrian Hull, Professor Trevor Keeble and Pippa Bostock from the University of Portsmouth discuss the work they are doing in extended reality, and what this could mean for the future of arts events
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Dr Tom Garner’s video explaining and defining VR is here
The video introducing CCIXR is here and the webpage for the Centre is here
The RSC Dream production has free or paid tickets here (performances 12 – 20 March)
2.30pm – 3pm
Break or Wonder.me Social Hangout
Come and meet delegates informally at BAFA’s wonder.me space, where we’ll have dedicated areas for festivals wanting to meet by artform or month, as well as open spaces for general chats
3pm – 3.30pm
Not a Crystal Ball, but a Hot Air Balloon
Introduced by Stewart Collins (Petworth and Henley Festivals), Brad Carlin from TRG Arts discusses 5 things we should be elevating for 2021:
Relevance: what is your ‘Just Cause’, how will you be relevant to your audiences and community in 2021, how will CREATIVITY take the lead?
Relationships: With whom will you gather? What is your promise to them, and how will you (re)engage them in 2021?
Digital shadows: digitally delivered programming’s potential upsides have always been there and they’re not going away. But the economics and audience behaviours are different than our conventional programmes.
Welcome Mats: How will we welcome audiences back? What will they expect and how will we respond?
Smaller is better than gone: Silos are so 2019 and what will we STOP doing to make space for succeeding with likely smaller resources?
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Brad’s presentation is here
TRG 30 – both past and upcoming resources are here
Simon Sinek – The Infinite Game TED talk is here
Nina Simon – The Art of Relevance TED talk and free version of the book available here
Michael Maddaus – Resiliency Bank Accounts is here
Eldar Shafir and Sendhil Mullainathan – Scarcity review is here
Rahaf Harfoush – Hustle and Float is talk is here
3.30pm – 3.45pm: Break
3.45pm – 4.45pm
Creating a To-Don’t List
Brad Carlin of TRG Arts will lead participants through a process of ‘creative destruction’ to essentially develop ‘to-don’t’ lists for achieving their top goals in 2021. Chaired by Stewart Collins.
[Limited spaces – Zoom meeting]
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Other resources as above
and
3.45pm – 4.45pm
The B Word
Join Mark Pemberton, Director of the Association of British Orchestras, in conversation with Alexis Paterson, Three Choirs Festival as they discuss what Brexit means for festivals and the arts, and what resources are available to help festivals navigate the post-Brexit world.
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Mark’s presentation is here
The ABO’s stakeholders’ briefing on the Trade and Co-operation Agreement is here
Friday 26th February
10am – 11am
Re-Framing Place
Adrian Turpin (Wigtown Book Festival), Manon Rees O’Brien (Tafwyl Festival), Hugo Mintz (Edinburgh International Festival) and Teresa Grøtan (Bergen International Literary Festival/Literature Live around the World) will discuss with Lyndsey Fineran (Cheltenham Literature Festival) how their festivals have re-imagined and re-engaged with their sense of place and their communities during the pandemic
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Wigtown Book Festival‘s short films on wild swimming, bookshop and Saltmarsh
Tafwyl’s 2020 festival highlights in full are here
Edinburgh International Festival‘s My Light Shines On: a celebration of the festival city full documentary and wrap video
Bergen International Literary Festival‘s work on Literature Live Around the World can be found here and the presentation is here
11am – 11.30am: Break
11.30am – 1pm
Choice of breakout sessions:
11.30am – 12.30pm
Focus on Wales
Carys Wynne-Morgan and Suzanne Griffiths-Rees of Arts Council Wales will be talking about Arts Council of Wales’s priorities as we move forward, as well as the Cultural Contract that’s being developed with the sector and Welsh Government. There will be time during the session for reflection on 2020 and a look at the lessons we can learn for the future from a Welsh perspective. Session chaired by Alison Giles (Presteigne Festival) [Zoom meeting]
Session resources:
Watch the session here
or
11.30am – 12.30pm
Focus on Scotland
Laura Mackenzie-Stuart (Creative Scotland) and James Waters (Lammermuir Festival) discuss the festival climate in Scotland and priorities going forward [Zoom meeting]
Session resources:
Watch the session here
or
12.15pm – 1pm
Focus on England
Tiina Hill from Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Network will talk about digital innovation and inclusion in the context of ACE’s 10 year strategy, and how ACE has supported festivals. She will introduce the DCN support offer, and will be joined by DCN tech champion Dean Shaw, who will cover planning for content creation and how to make engaging content. Session chaired by Ashley Morris (Newbury Spring Festival) [Zoom meeting]
Session resources:
Watch the session here
1pm – 2pm: Break
2pm – 3pm
Changemakers
Emily Jones (Sage Gateshead), Sarah Blowers (Strike a Light), beatboxer and artist Conrad Murray, and curator and artist Nii Ayikwei Parkes (Brighton Festival) join Lyndsey Fineran (Cheltenham Literature Festival) to talk about what future festivals might look like as part of the post-pandemic reset and reconfiguration of arts and culture
Session resources:
Watch the session here
Emily Jones: resources and provocations for organisations from the Culture Reset programme
Sarah Blowers: GL4, Strike a Light‘s an open call to the ‘woke community’
Some great work by the Co-creating Change network
3pm
Closing Remarks
Session resources:
Watch the session here
