Children’s Festival 25th May – 3rd June 2007 End of Festival Report

Introduction Young at Art’s international children’s festival has grown enormously since the first festival in 1998 and is now one of the largest in the UK, second only to the Bank of Scotland International Children’s Festival. Young at Art is now a flagship youth arts organisation in , possessing unique elements such as a year-round programme of activity, a history of commissioning and supporting new artists, and a multi-artform programme. The Belfast Children’s Festival celebrated its 10th birthday in 2007 with a theme of Love & Friendship, combining accessible quality local and international artists and events for families, schools and groups.

Belfast Children’s Festival Over its ten days the festival  mounted over 160 events  hosted 10 exhibitions  was attended by over 10,000 children and adults  involved over 70 artists  was supported by 22 volunteers, 10 staff and the staff and volunteers of participating venues

Many events sold out with an average capacity of 77%. Total attendance was 10,289 including participation by 30 schools and groups (see attached breakdown).

The festival blended performance and participatory activities with a healthy mixture of free drop-in and ticketed events, combining local and international artists, multiple artforms and cross-artform events. Participating artists came from Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Brazil and Italy. Building on the successful partnerships of 2006 and before, the festival used its programme to draw families into Belfast and public venues, particularly over its opening weekend. Collaboration with and the Waterfront Hall drew together civic events such as the Lord Mayor’s Carnival and the Continental Market with festival events, including the massively successful Festival in a Weekend at the Waterfront Hall, creating one massive family-friendly weekend in the city and uniting the organisations in celebrating not only the 10th festival but also the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Waterfront Hall. Festival venues included the City Hall, Black Box, Old Museum Arts Centre and Waterfront Hall. The Parks Department played a major part in the festival, hosting two days of successful and well attended events in Botanic Gardens, despite the weather.

Young at Art continued to promote and discuss issues around children and young people’s cultural entitlement and creative needs through its Open Space initiative. Three seminars took place during the festival – details of each discussion will soon be available on www.youngatart.co.uk.

Programme highlights  More of it than we think – a showcase of children’s and young people’s artwork exhibited throughout festival venues  Cinderella - a magical world standard one-woman show with exceptional puppetry, design and wit  Daniel Morden and Oliver Wilson-Dickson demonstrating the art of storytelling at its finest in Monster  Children aged 0-3 years experiencing a year in the life of a garden in Egg & Spoon  The world’s first pregnant man, courtesy of Lempen Puppet Theatre, baffling passers-by in the Waterfront Hall during Festival in a Weekend

Outreach The Community Ticket Scheme ran for a second time in 2007, working with An Droichead Cultural Resource Centre in South Belfast, New Lodge Youth Centre (Grey Gables) in North Belfast, Chinese Welfare Association and Indian community arts organisation, ArtsEkta. The scheme was devised to provide special access to the festival for communities and groups who cannot or do not regularly attend arts events by offering discounted tickets and training in Young at Art’s box office system.

A Friendship Fund was introduced offering discounted tickets and transport assistance to schools and groups in disadvantaged areas – this proved very successful and it is intended to repeat the scheme in 2008. Schools and groups were also offered additional “make the most of it” workshops at very low cost if they attended festival events. These workshops were designed to turn a festival visit into a full-day programme. Areas for the children to eat their packed lunches were arranged for most visits. Schools and groups were contacted about the festival and relevant schemes via a direct mailing and follow up calls, including an easy-to-use faxable booking form.

Festival Marketing The festival marketing campaign rolled out over a four-month period through advertising and direct mail. It was supported by a strong PR campaign generating significant local coverage. The promotional print for the festival, in addition to brochures, included postcards to highlight specific events and draw attention to the festival and its on-line presence. A significant increase in web sales was generated while the additional bulk of print enabled far wider distribution.

Print  40,000 x brochures  10,000 x A5 Festival postcards  10,000 x A5 Festival in a Weekend postcards  5,000 x A5 Urban Arts Akidemy postcards  2,500 x A5 Lá le Jackie/Open Space postcards  2,500 x A5 Belfast Children’s Festival goes to the park postcards  200 x A3 full colour posters  150 x A3 mono colour community promotion posters  2,000 x faxback forms  1,000 x balloons

Advertising  30 x Adshel sites across festival launch (cycle 7)  6 x Adshel sites in run up to festival (cycle 10)  10 x Adshel sites across festival opening (cycle 11)  Colour ads in two issues of NI4Kids  Free banner advertising on NI4Kids website

Direct marketing  Direct mail to 1,447 schools  Direct mail to 1,114 families  314 festival launch invitations  Telemarketing to schools

Venue brochures and websites also listed events and highlighted the festival. Brochures were distributed to family friendly retail outlets, cafes, visitor attractions etc. across Belfast, Greater Belfast, Co Down and Co Antrim leisure and community centres and libraries.

Press The festival generated a high level of media coverage including features on BBC Radio Ulster’s Arts Extra, UTV Live, FM, Downtown Radio, GMTV and a very high web presence. Print coverage included features and articles in Belfast Telegraph, South Belfast News, Irish News, Community Telegraph, News Letter, Ulster Tatler, Irish Times, Ireland’s Homes, Interiors and Living; national coverage included pieces in The Guardian, The Times, MixMag and the Sunday Telegraph Magazine.

Promotions Brochure and balloon promotions were held at five shopping centres in the North, South, East and West of the city. This was in addition to leafleting outside the Belfast Welcome Centre and during the Belfast Marathon. Funding The festival received funding from a range of sources, notably from the National Lottery Fund through ACNI, towards programming and promotion costs. The original ACNI Lottery application contained programming elements that were eventually not included in the festival (Garden Party). This was due to the delay in the ACNI Lottery funding decision which resulted in certain elements being removed due to the lack of planning and preparation time.

Long-standing relationships with 3rd Source Media and ClearChannel continued to be a success while new partnerships were forged with Royal Mail and Mash Direct, who provided cash sponsorship for specific festival events, and the Belfast Harbour Commissioners, who sponsored and hosted the festival launch.

Funders  Arts Council of Northern Ireland (core funding)  Belfast City Council (core funding)  National Lottery Fund through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland  Department for Social Development  Foras na Gaeilge

Sponsors  Royal Mail  Mash Direct  Belfast Harbour Commissioners  3rd Source Media (in-kind)  ClearChannel (in-kind)  Jury’s Inn (in-kind)  Bloomsbury Books (in-kind)  No Alibis Bookstore (in-kind)

Evaluation A range of monitoring and evaluation tools were employed during and post festival. Recording audience feedback was vital, but the views of volunteers, staff, artists and venues were equally important in determining the success of the festival and ensuring issues can be addressed for future years.

Methods of evaluation  Comments slips – 144 returned  Online survey - 416 issued via the e-marketing function of ts.com, 123 returned  Postal questionnaire to volunteers – 21 issued, 11 returned  Postal questionnaire to schools/groups – 29 issued, 11 returned  Postal questionnaire to More of it than we think groups – 9 issued, 5 returned  Postal questionnaire to Parent Ambassadors (mystery shoppers) – 7 issued, 2 returned  Debriefs with staff, artists, venues and partners

The overall impression was very positive with happy audiences appreciating a high quality programme of events. Below is a sample selection of feedback received via comments slips and the online survey.

“My kids really enjoyed the Jacare Jungle and the other activities on in the Waterfront itself. I think you are doing a great job and it gets better with each year.” Festival in a Weekend

“We really enjoyed it! And this is our first time at the Children’s Festival. I would come back next year!” Diva

“It was excellent – show had something for everyone – a lovely experience for all ages” Egg & Spoon

“We came from Scotland and really enjoyed it. Well done to all staff”

Conclusion The festival was considered a success and a fitting tribute to its 10th year. The quality of the programme was very high with a healthy box office as a result. The festival was well run by staff and volunteers with very few problems arising. Artists were very happy with the warm welcome from festival staff and volunteers, with many keen to return. Ultimately, the children, families, schools and groups who attended the festival were entertained, surprised, moved and inspired by what they saw.

Successes  Reflecting the multi-culturalism of Belfast and Northern Ireland with performances from Brazilian, Italian and Danish artists  Provision for early years audiences with Baby Rave and Egg & Spoon  Offering many free drop-in events, encouraging people of all ages and abilities to get involved and visit festival venues  Running the Friendship Fund, a new scheme helping schools and groups that are experiencing hardship to access the festival by providing assisted transport, tickets and supplementary workshops for schools and groups  Running the Community Ticket Scheme for a second time  Refining the organisation’s outreach work to ensure that projects feed into or arise out of the festival  Working with the Volunteer Development Agency through their Investing in Volunteers programme to attain best practice in volunteering

Problems Key elements of the success of the festival were significantly affected by the delay in the Lottery funding process. The festival was a success but at the expense of some of the programme and with significant stress on the small staff team and many of the artists involved. Tangible results were:  Low takeup on community ticket box office project due to late promotion and confirmation  Missed bookings from schools as they had already planned other outings  Missed promotional opportunities as the programme couldn’t be confirmed  Missed pre-booking/advance sales  Loss of programmed artists as they couldn’t wait so long for contracts  Bottleneck of workload for core staff team between March - June

Long term, the festival cannot develop under such extreme financial constraints, particularly the level of care and safety needed in running events and activities for children and young people, and the additional promotional measures needed to bring marginalised groups of families and children into this mainstream provision. Belfast Children’s Festival 2007 Attendance & participation summary

Event Venue(s) No of Total aud/ events pts Animal Sculpture workshops by Young at Art (NI) Waterfront Hall & Botanic 21 319 Age: 3 – 9 years Gardens Baby Rave Batacuda by Young at Art (NI) Main Auditorium, Waterfront Hall 4 1,423 Age: 0 – 4 years Big Ideas From Little Hands by NIPPA Creative Play Waterfront Hall 8 160 Team (NI) Age: 2 - 6 years Birds, Bugs and Bees by Young at Art (NI) Botanic Gardens 16 377 Age: 3 – 9 years Cinderella by Shona Reppe Puppets (UK) Studio Theatre, Waterfront Hall 6 621 Age: 5 years + The ClownDoctors Clinic by NI ClownDoctors (NI) Little Pavilion, Botanic Gardens 12 137 Age: 1 year + Digital Imaging workshop by WheelWorks (NI) Waterfront Hall 6 38 Age: 8 years + Diva by Teater Sofie Krog (DENMARK) Old Museum Arts Centre 5 209 Age: 10 years + Egg and Spoon by Lyngo Theatre Company (UK) Black Box 9 491 Age: 0 – 3 years Festival in a Weekend by Young at Art & Waterfront Hall Waterfront Hall 2 days 3,000 * (NI) Gareth Jones reading (UK) No Alibis Bookstore 1 38 Age: 10 – 12 years Grimm Jam by Monkeyshine Theatre (IRELAND) Old Museum Arts Centre 3 180 Age: 6 years + Indian dance workshop by Nisha Tandon (NI) Black Box 1 52 Age: 6 – 11 years Jacare Jungle by Oficina da Capoeira & Tara Carrigy Studio Theatre, Waterfront Hall 3 406 (BRAZIL/IRELAND) Age: 5 – 11 years Jackie’s Day by Graffiti Theatre Company (IRELAND) Old Museum Arts Centre 6 197 Age: 3½ - 6 years Lá le Jackie by Graffiti Theatre Company (IRELAND) An Droichead Cultural Resource 8 222 Age: 4½ - 7 years Centre Love by Replay Productions (NI) Old Museum Arts Centre 7 361 Age: 5 – 8 years Love Letters workshops by IKON (NI) Waterfront Hall 4 days 394 Age: 5 years + Love Letters exhibition by IKON (NI) Waterfront Hall 10 days Incl. in Festival in Weekend total Monster by Daniel Morden & Oliver Wilson-Dickson Black Box 4 160 (WALES) Age: 8 years + More of it than we think exhibition by Young at Art (NI) , Waterfront Hall, 10 days Incl. in Old Museum Arts Centre & Black Festival in Box a Weekend total Niamh Sharkey reading (IRELAND) No Alibis Bookstore 1 42 Age: 3 – 6 years Off Your Head workshops by Young at Art (NI) Waterfront Hall & Botanic 5 days 105 Age: all ages Gardens confirmed (exact figure unknown) Open Space 1: Filling the Void (NI) Old Museum Arts Centre 1 9

Open Space 2: Bilingualism and children’s arts (NI) An Droichead Cultural Resource 1 9 Centre Open Space 3: Only Looking (NI) Old Museum Arts Centre 1 11

The Flea Pit by Cahoots NI (NI) Waterfront Hall & Botanic 4 days 347 Age: 4 years + Gardens Stories my granny used to tell me by Creative Writers Old Museum Arts Centre 1 56 Network (NI) Age: 6 years + Tea and Tales with storytelling on the hour Belfast City Hall, Waterfront Hall, 9 days 292 Age: all ages Old Museum Arts Centre confirmed (exact figure unknown) Theatre for One by Lempen Puppet Theatre (UK) Waterfront Hall 2 days 137 Age: all ages Tom Thumb by Lyngo Theatre Company (UK) Black Box 4 349 Age: 5 years + Urban Arts Akidemy by Waterfront Hall and Young at Art Waterfront Hall 19 147 (NI) TOTAL 10,289

* Festival in a Weekend attendance based on estimated footfall at free events