Bootstrapping a festival (pt. 1)

Hey!

Last year I started making generative art, and came across a whole world of digital creativity.

I'd wanted to do a gallery show of digital artist's work as a launch event for my app back in May. Covid stopped that, but the idea kept on.

The more I got to know and be inspired by these artists, mostly hobbyists creating and sharing for the love of it, the more I wanted to help give their artworks their own space in real life, as equals to traditional art forms, get people together to celebrate and have some fun, and break down some of the barriers to accessibility, especially the heavy technical jargon.

I couldn't find any festivals or events in London that approached this, aside from the giant corporate events.

So I decided to set one up myself.

Aims

The aims of the festival are to:

Showcase creative coding and generative art
Champion emerging artists
Expand access to digital art forms

And most of all, do this in person by getting people together in real life.

Covid has cancelled most events, so the aim is to be ready for late spring / early summer, when (hopefully) lockdown will have ended.

I'm based in Peckham (SE London), a creative hub, and wanted to emphasise this local connection, along with the art form.

Peckham Digital was born.

First steps

So far, I had an audience of one - me!

So I first got in contact with the organisers of the two big creative coding meetup groups in London: London Creative Coding (LCC) and Algorithmic Art, to see if they liked the idea. They did (phew!) and were very helpful in providing advice and introducing me to others in the field.

This gave me confidence that there might be interest, and I contacted a range of other people to test this on a wider scale, with a very positive response. The enthusiasm was infectious.

I set up a fledgling website at peckhamdigital.org and did a shoutout at the LCC zoom meetup, after which around 5 people got in contact.

So I had some initial validation, but there was a big mountain to climb - would anyone come? Who would the audience be? How much would it cost? How long would it take? When would it be held? Where would it be held? How would it work with Covid? and most importantly (again), who would come?!

Advice

Raw enthusiasm can take you a long way, but sometimes it helps to get the perspective of people who have done it before. So I reached out to some of the directors of UK based digital art festivals, to ask for advice.

One had 500,000 people (!) come through the first edition of her new festival, which she'd set up for around £4k, a phenomenal outreach (the secret? Set it in a shopping centre).

I also got great advice on timescales (3+ months marketing run in to the event and at least a month for an artist open call), artists and speakers (assume a 50% drop out rate) and budget (what's that?!).

I developed a schedule and a budget, planning for different funding levels (with the assumption of almost no funding) and a flexible timescale (initially planning to hold it around Feb 2021, which is now likely to be around May 2021, (hopefully) post lockdown). This enforced additional time is something of a blessing, as there is lots to do!

Next steps

I'm still in the foothills of the mountains, with audience ridge, budget peak and schedule summit still to go.

I appreciate that this isn't a moneyspinner, I see it as part of a longer term investment in an audience that I actually care about and am part of (which I'll discuss in more depth).

I'm especially keen to try building via an audience first (or hybrid) approach, which is something I'm trying to learn. Fortunately, I've been joined by a fellow traveller (my new co-founder), which makes the journey easier.

Audience and funding are the priorities,and I'll cover my journey, including the many topics listed above, in future posts and on my blog!

Thanks for reading - any advice on building a festival would be amazing, let me know!