Virtual Dark Skies Festival Report February 2021
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VIRTUAL DARK SKIES FESTIVAL REPORT FEBRUARY 2021 HELEN DALTON DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 1 REPORT – FEB 2021 INTRODUCTION This year’s Dark Skies Festival was quite different to previous Dark Skies Festivals due to the pandemic. From the start of December 2020, we realised that we were going to be in lockdown in February 2021 and therefore we had to plan a festival which still attracted people to the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors but in a different way. In October we were in a similar situation for our Fringe Festival, so we decided to take the learnings we had from this festival and implement them on a bigger scale for the February Festival. As a result, we created a Virtual Dark Skies Festival in a truly short space of time. Working closely with the North York Moors and Neill Sanders from Go Stargazing. DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 2 REPORT – FEB 2021 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Aims As we were unable to host any actual Dark Skies events as part of the festival this year we had to create a festival which was appealing to a wide audience and would promote our National Parks and their Special Qualities and in particular inform our audience both areas have recently been awarded International Dark Sky Reserve Status. Objectives We needed to achieve the following: Create a family friendly festival which was accessible to all. Promote and raise awareness of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Encourage the wider audience to visit both National Parks. Create a wider following of people who want to know and understand what is happening in the National Parks and we can continue to update them for the businesses in our area. Carry out a survey to demonstrate we had achieved our objectives. Demonstrate to businesses how the Dark Skies Festival can help support their business in the future. DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 3 REPORT – FEB 2021 Figure 1 Summary Feedback was fantastic and many people said we had created a wonderful family friendly festival. We raised the profile of both National Parks and reached more people than we would have been able to if we had just hosted events alone. (appendix 1) Promotion and publicity still remained high with journalists and media thanks to Amanda Brown promoting the festival both locally and nationally. (appendix 2) Events We decided we still wanted to keep the festival going for two weeks and we wanted as much variety as possible throughout the festival. We had at least one event every day of the festival and on some days we had two or three events. We also had some ongoing activities which took place throughout the two-week festival, which the audience could join in at any time of the day or night. The majority of events were presented by phenomenal astronomers who, in normal times, we would work with during our festival, so it gave the audiences and businesses the opportunity to see and meet presenters who they can see for real when we host actual festivals. Some businesses were fantastic enough to host their own event as part of the festival and it just shows that this also helps raise their profile, for example Elizabeth Fawcett from Humble Pie Cookery School created a wonderful YouTube video of how to make ‘Constellation Biscuits’ and Stump Cross Cavern hosted their own Virtual Dark Skies event with Richard Darn and we promoted this for them. SUN, 28 FEB Art in Space Go Stargazing – Online event DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 4 REPORT – FEB 2021 SUN, 28 FEB Beginner’s Telescope Workshop (additional date) Go Stargazing – Online event SAT, 27 FEB How fast are you moving when sitting still? Go Stargazing – Online event FRI, 26 FEB Voyage of Discovery Go Stargazing – Online event FRI, 26 FEB DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 5 REPORT – FEB 2021 Time to ask your Space Questions Dark Skies Festival – Online event WED, 24 FEB Swaledale Starscapes Go Stargazing – Online event WED, 24 FEB Nature's Night-time Marvels (additional date) Dark Skies Festival – Online event TUE, 23 FEB The Dark Side of Street Lighting Go Stargazing – Online event MON, 22 FEB How Animals Deal with Darkness DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 6 REPORT – FEB 2021 Go Stargazing – Online event SUN, 21 FEB Nightscape Photography in the Yorkshire Dales Go Stargazing – Online event SUN, 21 FEB Beginner’s Telescope Workshop Go Stargazing – Online event SAT, 20 FEB Building a Satellite Go Stargazing – Online event SAT, 20 FEB Beginner's Guide to the Night Sky (additional date) Go Stargazing – Online event DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 7 REPORT – FEB 2021 FRI, 19 FEB The Artificial Intelligence Takeover of Space & Astronomy Go Stargazing – Online event FRI, 19 FEB Dark Skies Festival - Beginners Guide to the Universe Stump Cross Caverns – Online event THU, 18 FEB Perseverance Rover Lands on Mars! Go Stargazing – Online event DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 8 REPORT – FEB 2021 THU, 18 FEB Live views of the Moon! Go Stargazing – Online event THU, 18 FEB Nature's Night-time Marvels Dark Skies Festival – Online event WED, 17 FEB The Invisible Universe DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 9 REPORT – FEB 2021 TUE, 16 FEB Reverse through the Universe Go Stargazing – Online event TUE, 16 FEB Dark Skies Festival Creative Writing Workshop Dark Skies Festival – Online event MON, 15 FEB Landscape Astrophotography for Beginners Go Stargazing – Online event SAT, 13 FEB DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 10 REPORT – FEB 2021 Beginner's Guide to the Night Sky Go Stargazing – Online event FRI, 12 FEB National Parks Virtual Dark Skies Festival 2021 Go Stargazing – Online event FRI, 12 FEB Planet Discoveries Inspired by Star Trek Go Stargazing – Online event ALL WEEK Orla the Alien- Space Missions Dark Skies Festival – Online event DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 11 REPORT – FEB 2021 FRI, 12 FEB Our Place in Space – Children’s Workshop Dark Skies Festival – Online event ALL WEEK Humble Pie Cookery School – Celestial Biscuits https://youtube.com/watch?v=YXLYN0DEZfs&feature=share DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 12 REPORT – FEB 2021 SOCIAL MEDIA AND ATTENDANCE Social Media has played a key role in the promotion of the Virtual Dark Skies Festival and the audience which we have reached and engaged with. Our platforms were Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, with Facebook being the main go to platform - hosting the events via Facebook live and zoom. Live events - Go Stargazing Facebook Page Art in Space - Sam Cornwell Beginners Telescope Workshop - Luke Tyas How fast are you moving when sitting still - Dr Fred Voyage of Discovery - Steven Gray Our Place in Space - Jo Richardson Space Questions - Jo Richardson Space Detectives (evening) - Jo Richardson Space Detectives (morning) - Jo Richardson Natures Night-time Marvels - Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Natures Night-time Marvels - Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Dark Skies Festival Creative Writing Workshop - Seven Stories Swaledale Starscapes - Paul Clark The Dark Side of Street Lighting - Dr Callum Macgregor Moon Live - Neill Sanders How Animals Deal with Darkness - Dr Dean Waters Moon Live - Wil Cheung Nightscape Photography - Pete Collins Beginners Telescope Workshop - Neill Sanders/Sam Cornwell Building a Satellite - Luke Tyas Beginners Guide - Richard Darn Artificial Intelligence - Dr Maggie Lieu Perserverance Rover - Dr Fred Introduction Video Humble Pie Cookery Kitchen - 'Constellation Biscuits' The Invisible Universe - Andy Newsam Reverse through the Universe - Martin Whipp Astrophotography - Gary Lintern Go on a Mission to Mars - Colin Stuart Beginners Guide - Richard Darn Planet Discoveries - Professor Carole Haswell - 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 160,000 Likes Comments Shares Views Zoom Attendees Reach Engagement Attendance Zoom Attendees for the overall festival were 1,505 with more than 1 person watching the events. DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 13 REPORT – FEB 2021 Facebook Live has received over 176,600 views for all the events, this figure will continue to increase as more and more people view the events. They are always available on our Facebook Pages. Total reach via Social Media Total Reach 3,934,377 Zoom Attendees 1,727 Live Reach 430,256 FB Events 2,411,800 Blog 207 Web 4,286 Twitter 341,749 Instagram 373,514 Facebook 370,838 - 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000 OVER 4 MILLION PEOPLE WERE REACHED ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN TOTAL Engagement Survey Awareness Total engagement for the Festival 459 individuals completed our The Virtual Dark Skies Festival via social media was: 178,421 survey has certainly raised the awareness of the National Park in the UK and overseas. DARK SKIES FESTIVAL 14 REPORT – FEB 2021 SURVEY RESULTS After the virtual October festival, we realised we could target an audience that we wouldn’t have been able reach if we had just had events within both National Parks. As a result, we wanted to understand our audience and to see if we had been able to inspire and influence them to visit the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors when the time allowed (Covid-19). 95% (440) of people who completed the survey were inspired to visit the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. Results based on 459 respondents (appendix 3) 74% (340) of the people who completed the survey really enjoyed the events that were offered during the festival giving 6/6 stars and 23% (104) thought that the events were good (5/5 stars). Average rating 5.7 stars out of 6. Facebook was by far the most popular way of finding out about the festival with 77% (357) respondents saying they heard about it via this platform. Following this, ‘other’ was the next highest statistic with14% (63). In response to this question, some the most mentioned alternatives to those stated in the survey were: Word of mouth (most common), newspaper, newsletter (YDNPA) and email alerts.