Dugg Simpson - Festival Programming Beyond the Park

Canadian festivals have long been 'site specific' events - largely focused on a specific site for several days. As a place to start, it makes a lot of sense but with the passing of time, audience members and volunteers were very clear in their desire for 'more festival'.

I think that if they are to survive and thrive, festivals - and festival organizations -  must be more than a few days in a park once a year. Activities "beyond the park" can play a crucial role in developing and sustaining new partnerships, professional relationships and expanding programming possibilities. They can also play important roles in marketing and earning new revenues.

Some of my responses included...

Live on the Drive
-an annual free concert in a public park on the city's east side was developed in partnership with a local community centre and CBC Radio. Featuring one local, one national and one international band, these concerts made some of the festival's music more accessible and were recorded for later regional and national broadcast.

Stage 8
- co-created a series of podcasts devoted to festival performers, volunteers and change.

The Festival After Hours
- worked with local video, performance and theatre artists and festival volunteers, created a Friday night welcome reception reception for staff and performers and 2 nights of amazing post-park celebrations for volunteers, performers and guests that earened new revenues and became the a very popular benefit of volunteering.

Community concerts
- some artists programmed for the festival enjoyed significant followings in different Vancouver communities, but the majority of people in those communities have their own concert rituals that could not be accommodated at the festival.
I worked with presenters from those communities to present selected artists (eg: Kamkars, Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali) in full-successful, length performances in major civic venues while they were in town to perform at the festival.

Capilano College Folk'n'Roots Concert Series
- created a presenting alliance of three organizations (the folk festival, the Rogue Folk Society and the Capliano College of the Arts) to develop, market and present a successful annual concert series featuring festival and other performers in a professional theatre.

Taking It to the Street
- to market the festival and counter tendencies to stereo-type "folk" music, I extended the programming to include unannounced performances by festival performers around the city, ranging from a Rajasthani wedding band in Stanley park to local DJs on the back of a truck.

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