Urban sustainability: challenges and solutions for city-based festivals

Photo Credit: British Arts Festivals Association.

I was delighted to speak on a panel at the British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA) Conference for Festivals 2024 last week. The event took place at Bristol Beacon on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th November.

Before my panel, the focus of discussions was on the results of BAFA's Festivals Mean Business sector research report, Festivals Forward. The aim of the conference was to review the report and generate positive actions via panels, roundtable discussions, workshops and networking.

On day one, the first session was the revealing of the Festivals Forward report. Chaired by Leksi Paterson, Rhiannon Davies of BOP Consulting launched the results, providing key data on scope, scale and activities of arts festivals, kickstarting conversations about current challenges, solutions and opportunities. Nick Green of Arts Council England gave an overview of the strategic context for festival development.

In the second session of the morning conversation moved on to Festivals Advocacy. Introduced by Alison Giles, Jon Flinn from DHA Communications led a workshop on how organisations could use the Festivals Forward report to raise the profile of your festival amongst the media, funders and stakeholders.

After lunch, Helen Heslop introduced Jenny Harris, with a presentation titled 'Relevance is Everything' about the preparations for Bradford becoming city of culture in 2025. Following on from this, Lucy Kerbel of Tonic used the results from the Festivals Forward report to lead a workshop on inclusion for festivals, introduced by Erica Smith.

The panel I spoke on was titled 'Urban sustainability: challenges and solutions for city-based festivals'. The session was introduced by Anna Gregg and chaired by James Kitto, of Cheltenham Festivals. I was joined on the panel by Zoe Curtis from Brighton Festival and Dome.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the second day of the conference, which also had a great programme of talks. The first session was led by Naomi Taylor discussing Excellence, Access and Attitude through the festival lens. This was followed by a session on Building the future, a workshop guided by Danielle Pipe and Tenaya King of Julie’s Bicycle. Next up was Thangam Debbonaire talking about the Politics of Partnerships. A session on Leading Change featured David Brownlee from Data Culture Change, Laura Elliot of Belgrade Theatre's Leaders for Culture Change programme, Kate Hall and Kate Abbey from Bath Arts Collective, chaired by Erica Smith. After lunch Sho Shibata discussed Outdoor Arts Building diverse-led organisations and Chris Johnson of Shambala festival and Vision 2025 gave a round up of the current state of sustainability in the UK events sector, identified challenges and opportunities, new standards, and what the future could look like.