Cheltenham Festivals

PUBLIC RESPONSE Background Cheltenham Festivals is the charitable organisation behind the town’s internationally acclaimed Jazz, Science, Music and Literature Festivals. By championing the best up-and-coming young talent, celebrating the work of established artists and commissioning unique and surprising performances, Cheltenham Festivals remains a cultural force to be reckoned with. From just three concerts at the very first Cheltenham Festival, the four festivals now feature nearly 1,000 events and sell over 215,000 tickets annually. This response has been provided by the Jazz and Music festival teams, and therefore will focus on the most relevant stations to the festivals: BBC Radio 2, Radio 3 and 6 Music. Supporting a wide range of genres Cheltenham Jazz Festival works alongside BBC Radio 2 to bring Jazz to a broader audience. The Festival has seen that impact of Jamie Cullum’s Radio 2 show in supporting jazz generally and in helping change the public perception of jazz has been considerable. It brings a wider listenership and illustrates how vibrant and diverse the music is, as well as encouraging people to attend gigs. His recent guest director role at the festival demonstrated that he has become a tastemaker trusted by audiences, which translated into ticket sales. Jazz on 3 on BBC Radio 3 continues to excellently showcase contemporary jazz with live broadcasts, although it is a shame it is scheduled in the middle of the night, when the programme clearly has a dedicated following. Radio 3’s position as the home of classical music is exemplary and generally fulfils its remit well. There is a terrific range of music broadcast on Radio 3 under the eight-centuries umbrella of ‘classical music’. However, it is clear that there is a problematic polarity of views about what ‘tone’ the station should adopt: to a generally younger listener, coming to Radio 3 from elsewhere, it apparently appears staid and dry, but to the ‘old guard’ – for example the group ‘Friends of Radio 3’ - attempts at modernising this tone are far from welcomed. Perhaps it is time for the station to go back to basics? Supporting UK, live and new music Both BBC Radio 2 and 3 support live music well, and overall the Festivals are proud of the live broadcasts our events receive. The stations are a trusted brand which is a badge of quality for that event. We know that our audiences also like to listen again online to events they have attended, and enjoy being part of live broadcasts such as Friday Night is Music Night, the Live in Concert series and In Tune. The Festivals were very pleased with the programmes broadcast live from both festivals this year (In Tune at the Music festival and Jamie Cullum & Clare Teal at the Jazz Festival). Such live broadcasts should always be as contextual and interactive as possible, and all three succeeded in capturing the festival buzz. Responding to changing listening habits There has been public comment recently that because of the changing listenership of Radio 3 and 6 Music, they should switch platforms so Radio 3 becomes digital only and 6 Music moves to FM. The Music Festival team feel that this would be catastrophic for the classical music audience, as although listening habits are changing, the audience for Radio 3 is older and far less likely to make the switch to digital (especially when it remains largely unavailable in cars). Ideally, Radio 3 should continue to be available across all platforms. Cross-promotion between stations could be much more powerful in signposting related content and sharing audiences, particularly for more ‘alternative’ music. Mary Anne Hobbs’ recent show on Radio 3 was a great example of this and was very effective in drawing 6 Music listeners to Radio 3, but it wasn’t made clear that some of the music she played is available on Radio 3 all the time. Strategies and funding The New Generation Artists scheme is fantastic and has been a very successful talent-spotting and career development strategy in the last 15 years. It has become a recognisable badge of quality for audiences and a steady increase in loyalty among the Cheltenham Music Festival audience to NGAs has been discernible. BBC Introducing achieves a similar effect, although it would be nice to see more support for emerging UK jazz artists. .

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