📆 Tuesday 10 March
📍 Edinburgh Futures Institute, Room 255
🕙 10am – 4pm (registration from 9.30am; drinks reception 4pm – 5pm)
🎟 £12 members | £20 non-members
Join fellow festival and events professionals for this one-day event to gain insight, inspiration and connections for the year ahead. The Forum will include lightning talks, roundtables and opportunities to talk about topics including environmental sustainability, festivals and activism, festival ticketing and the Digital Markets Competition and Consumer Act, BAFA’s research programme, tourism and the visitor levy. We’ll be looking at festivals and fundraising, and exploring the challenges of capacity and burnout within the sector, as well as exploring opportunities in the year ahead through our closing panel discussion, Reasons to be Cheerful. There will be plenty of opportunities to network and meet fellow festival organisers, including at a post-event drinks reception in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University, so please join us and help supercharge your festival team for the year ahead.
Speakers include Edinburgh International Festival, STAR, Culture for Climate Scotland, Lammermuir Festival, Imaginate, Fringe by the Sea, Red 61, Festival Samaritans and Edinburgh Fringe.
Programme:
0930: Registration and coffee
1000: Introduction: The Future is Connected – Fiona Goh (BAFA) and John Rostron (AIF)
1030 – 1115: Lightning talks 1: Festival Fundraising in 2026 (Katherine Planas, Edinburgh International Festival); Festivals and the visitor levy (Tony Lankester, Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Festivals and Mental Health (Louise MacArthur, Festival Samaritans)
1115 – 1200: Roundtables 1: Festival fundraising, Festivals and the visitor levy, Festivals and mental health: burnout and capacity
1200 – 1300: Lunch (N.B. lunch isn’t provided so delegates will make their own arrangements)
1300 – 1345: Lightning talks 2 – Pricing transparency and the DMCCA (Jonathan Brown, STAR and Tony Davey, Red61); Sustainability for Arts Festivals (Ben Twist, Culture for Climate Scotland)
1345 – 1430: Roundtables 2: Environmental sustainability, Ticketing, Festivals and activism
1430 – 1500: Coffee
1500 – 1555: Reasons to be Cheerful? – this closing panel discussion, chaired by Professor Jane Ali-Knight, will horizon scan and explore what festivals have to look forward to, and how they can positively take opportunities and make connections during the year ahead, with panellists Belinda McElhinney (Imaginate), Jackie Shuttleworth (Fringe by the Sea) and James Waters (Lammermuir Festival)
1555 – 1600: Closing words
1600 – 1700: Drinks reception sponsored by Edinburgh Napier University
BAFA and AIF members can join for £12 each, and non-members for £20. Tickets will include teas/coffees during the day and the post-event drinks reception, but attendees will make their own arrangements for lunch. Registration and coffees will be available from 9.30am, with the drinks reception from 4pm – 5pm.
Tickets are available here.
We look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh!
Programme subject to change
WiFi
The Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) offers guests a free Wi-Fi service called Visit-Ed. Guests should be able to connect anywhere they see the Visit-Ed SSID (network) available on their mobile device. No pre-registration by staff is required, guests can simply self self-register.
Quick Look Location (click for Google maps link)
Conference and reception: Room 255, Edinburgh Futures Institute
Being a member of BAFA offers access to the UK’s leading arts festivals, and an invaluable opportunity to build a strong network of professional contacts across the breadth of the festivals sector.
Our members range from volunteer-run organisations to large, well-established festivals, and we also have special memberships available for universities and associate members.
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