Belfast Children’s Festival 2010 Event Report

introduction & background summary

Young at Art is a children’s arts charity and organiser of the Belfast Children’s Festival. Set up in 1998, its mission is to make life for children and young people from 0 – 18 years as creative as possible through engagement with the arts. It does this through an annual international festival and a year-round programme of outreach and development work, including touring and workshop programmes, partnerships and new commissions.

The 2010 Belfast Children’s Festival was a 10-day programme of theatre, puppetry, music, storytelling, dance and visual arts for children aged 0-14 and their families. Over 205 events were held, involving over 251 local, national and international artists, 62 volunteers, 3 core staff and 29 freelance staff and 14 venues. With a unique theme each year, the 2010 festival carried a theme of ‘Perspectives’ which was reflected in much of the festival programme. brief summary of festival events

Belfast Children’s Festival Over its ten days the festival;  mounted over 205 events  hosted exhibitions in 5 venues  was attended by over 23,000 children and adults  involved over 251 artists  was supported by 62 volunteers, 29 event staff and the staff and volunteers of participating venues

Themed around ‘Perspectives’, this year’s Belfast Children’s Festival was packed with an exciting international programme of music, theatre and art for all the family. Highlights included an official visit from Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne, Baby Rave – a real child-sized rave, Festival goes to the Waterworks – a large scale outdoor event in North Belfast and the popular event Festival in a Weekend – with 2 days of creative mayhem at the Waterfront.

Director of Young at Art, Ali Fitzgibbon, sums up the festival; “From international award-winning theatre to original and quirky exhibitions, live music concerts for kids, hundreds of free activities and discounts for families, the 13th Belfast Children’s Festival is made to give everyone a happy memory they will never forget.”

Many events sold out with an average capacity of 74%. Total attendance of the festival combined with 2 substantial weekend events in the Waterworks and Waterfront was over 23,000 children and adults. This included participation by over 36 schools and groups, many from areas of high deprivation.

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, Italy, Germany and Croatia.

The large scale outdoor event ‘Festival goes to the Waterworks’ returned bringing the festival to North Belfast , Festival in a Weekend at Belfast Waterfront returned, drawing families into Belfast for a range of family-friendly activities and performances under one roof during the closing weekend of the festival. Festival venues included Belfast Exposed, Belfast Waterfront, Black Box, Crescent Arts Centre, Grand Opera House, Naughton Gallery at Queens, No Alibis Bookstore, Old Museum Building (Former OMAC), Out of Place, PS2, Ulster Hall, University of Ulster and the Youth Action Building.

In addition to the support we raise to offer affordable tickets, schools and groups are receiving up to 50% off the full ticket price. For those schools in communities experiencing hardship, we are once again offering extra support through our hardship fund – the Friendship Fund. This will provide a further 50% off the ticket price for all your booking

The festival was once again able to offer it’s ‘Friendship Fund’ and ‘Community Ticketing Scheme’ A delegate programme welcomed visiting practitioners from across Ireland and to the festival and the festival has since been awarded ASSITEJ International Festival status. Young at Art continued to promote and discuss issues around children and young people’s cultural entitlement and creative needs through its newly named annual ‘Making Space’ programme. Six seminars took place during the festival and included performances and discussions from the visiting international artists.

evaluation & audience feedback

Qualitative feedback from children and adults that attended the festival was captured by Young at Art. Festival volunteers encouraged audience members to complete comments slips which could be posted into comments boxes located at various points throughout the festival venues. Feedback was also captured on-line via our feedback questionnaire on the Belfast Children’s Festival Website. All those who provided feedback were automatically entered into a free draw to win a golden family ticket to next Belfast Children’s Festival.

At the event Feedback sheets for both adults and children were offered at all the events and staff and volunteers were briefed to promote this to the public and comments gathered throughout the festival. Verbal and observational feedback was also noted throughout the festival by volunteer event staff, the core staff and front of house managers. Photographic documentation was taken by Young at Art staff members and the official festival photographer.

Post-event An online survey was made available on the festival website. An email was circulated to all patrons of the festival, with a link to this survey. All those submitting either comments or online surveys before the end of June 2010 would be entered into a free prize draw. Groups and schools and volunteers received postal evaluations with post-paid reply envelopes.

Debriefs Staff recorded any general comments and suggestions while post-event debriefings were arranged for all front of house staff to capture the general and event specific comments and suggestions.

General festival comments  Congratulations to the Belfast Children's Festival - a fantastic 10 days - looking forward to next year already!  The Belfast Children’s Festival is highly commendable because the children get an opportunity to take part and get involved. It absolutely boosts their spirit in socializing and building self confidence, which should be encouraged in the community.  We really look forward to the Festival each year. We go to quite a lot and its always worth it, we see so many, very different things. I am looking forward to being able to bring along my youngest to future years, as she grows into the age recommendations!  Great Festival, roll on 2011 Festival. Thanks for making my kids smile and laugh!

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 and significantly supported by in-kind sponsorship from Clear Channel NI/Ireland and Paperjam design.

A significant promotional schedule was also carried out in the month leading up to the festival. Balloon hand outs, art workshops and leaflet distribution was carried out in a number of retail outlets throughout Belfast and the Greater Belfast Area.

Print  30,000 x Belfast Children’s Festival brochures  15,000 x A5 Festival goes to the Waterworks leaflets  15,000 x A5 Festival highlights leaflets  5,000 x A5 Festival goes to the Waterfront leaflets  2,500 x A5 Festival goes to the Crescent leaflets  2,500 x A5 Festival goes to the Grand Opera House leaflets  200 x A5 full colour window stickers  2,000 x teachers packs (schools & groups)  1,400 x balloons  3 x pop-up stands  15 x A1 posters  1 x 4 sheet poster (GOH)  5,000 x stickers  100 x staff/volunteer t-shirts  1 x Box Office A-Board  300 x A5 Launch invite  50 x Adshel posters

Additional Print  5,000 x A5 Mickey and Lionel leaflets  5,000 x A5 Charlie and Lola leaflets  2,500 x Charlie and Lola Bookmarks  20 x A1 Mickey and Lionel posters  50 x A3 Charlie and Lola posters  2 x pages in Grand Opera House seasonal brochure  1 x pages in Crescent Arts Centre seasonal brochure  6 x pages in Waterfront seasonal brochure

Advertising  20 x festival adshels (Belfast & Greater Belfast Area)  20 x festival adshels (Dublin & Greater Dublin Area)  2 x adverts with editorial in NI4Kids  1 x advert with editorial in Modern Mum  15 x sponsored radio adverts on Cool FM

Direct marketing  Direct mail to 2,000 schools and groups  2nd Direct mail to 2,000 schools and groups including brochure  Direct mail to 2,500 families nationwide  300 festival launch invitations  Telemarketing to schools  E-marketing to groups on YAA database  E- marketing to 1,800 families on emailing list  E-marketing on Young at art facebook – 1,505 friends  E-marketing on Belfast Children’s Festival fan page – 1,045 fans  E-marketing on Twitter with updates followed by 201 people, Bebo and various blogs were also regularly updated

Print Distribution Brochures were distributed to family friendly retail outlets, cafes, visitor attractions, leisure centres, community centres and libraries etc. across Belfast and the Greater Belfast area, brochures were also distributed in Bangor, Lisburn, Lurgan, Moira, Newcastle and the Newtownards area. Brochures and information were also distributed through a range of youth and community networks, including early year’s centres and organisations like Playboard. Information was also circulated through NICCSA Club Marketing with a circulation of 100,000 people throughout the civil service in Northern Ireland.

Promotions Brochure and balloon promotions were held at five shopping centres in the North, South, East and West of the city and in Bangor. This was in addition to leafleting inside Victoria Square pre- festival. A number of workshops also took place in IKEA Belfast, Tesco Yorkgate and Tesco Ballygomartin.

Working closely with the NI Tourist Board, BVCB and Belfast City Council, a window display was taken in the Consumer Advice Bureau, Belfast for the week prior to the festival period in May.

Additional festival promotion

Great Northern Mall promotional stand A month long promotion took place between 1– 30 May 2010 with the Enjoy Ireland Stand in the Great Northern Mall (leading to Vitoria Station).The Enjoy Ireland Stand in the Mall displayed 1 large A0 festival poster, festival brochures, Charlie and Lola posters and well as a selection of all festival leaflets. An afternoon of leafleting passersby took place the week prior to the festival, over 3,000 leaflets were handed out to people entering the Mall.

Date Footfall 03/05/2010 83,318 10/05/2010 81,952 17/05/2010 90,788 24/05/2010 87,254 31/05/2010 86,310

press and media campaign

Launch

The University of Ulster (Art College) served as the perfect setting for the 2010 Belfast Children’s Festival Launch. A large cardboard city had been built in the space used for the Launch complete with a cardboard City Hall, sky scrapers and a crane. Minature food was served up by local actors with large magnifying glasses as the launch directly reflected the ‘Perspectives’ theme of the 2010 programme. In attendance was Councilor Naomi Long Lord Mayor of Belfast, Glenn Irvine of the Department for Social Development and Rosemary Kelly, Chair of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. A class of pupils from St Mary’s Primary got a taste of what was to come in the 2010 festival, taking part in one of the festival’s most exciting projects ‘Cardboard Cities’ lead by local artist Caragh O’Donnell.

A photocall and interview opportunity information pack was sent to all major newsdesks and as a result the photocall and interview opportunity at the launch event was well covered by local media such as , , South , , Daily Mirror and Radio Ulster.

Summary of media coverage of the 2010 festival The festival generated a high level of media coverage including several features on BBC Radio Ulster News Bulletin, Arts Extra, Good Morning Ulster, Radio Ulster Summer Club, the Saturday Magazine Show, U105 FM, Cool FM, NVTV community television, UTV, BBC Newsline and Nuacht RTÉ. The festival also had a very high presence on the web – websites listing information on the festival are included in the appendix.

Print coverage included Andersonstown News, Antrim Guardian, , Arts Industry, Ballyclare Gazette, Ballymena Guardian, Ballymena Times, Bandbridge Weekender, Belfast Telegraph, Belfast Telegraph – City Edition, Belfast Telegraph – Early Edition , Belfast Telegraph – Final Edition, Belfast Telegraph – Jobfinder, , – East Belfast, Community Telegraph – North Belfast, Community Telegraph – North Down & Ards, Community Telegraph – South Belfast , Cork Evening Echo, , Daily Mirror, , Farm Week, Go Magazine, Irish News, Irish Times, , , Mid- Ulster Mail – South Derry, Mid-Ulster Mail, Newsletter, Newtownabbey Times, Newtownards Chronicle, Newtownards Spectator, NI4Kids, , North West Telegraph, – Magherafelt, Roe Valley Sentinel, South Belfast News, Sunday Business Post, , , , , What about Guide and The Guardian.

outcomes  Association with one of the largest and most successful children’s festivals in the UK and Ireland.  Association with a significant high quality civic event, combining culture, families, community groups and schools.  Exposure and direct access to key target audience - a large family market - mainly 25- 45 year old parents and children aged 0-14 years old, plus schools and community groups, in a sympathetic environment.  Opportunity for awareness-building and to convey particular key messages of community involvement.  Raised profile amongst families, schools and groups across Northern Ireland.

Brand inclusion in print  Belfast Children’s Festival brochure (30,000 print run) Festival brochures were mailed directly to 2,500 families, 2,000 pre-schools and playgroups, primary schools, special schools and community groups listed on the festival database. Brochures were distributed to family friendly venues, organisations, retail outlets, cafes, visitor attractions, libraries, leisure centres, restaurants, hotels, etc across Belfast, Greater Belfast and County Down and Armagh. Areas specifically targeted (outside Belfast) included, Newtownabbey, Holywood, Bangor, Newtownards, Newscastle, Lisburn, Moira and Lurgan.

Brand inclusion on website  The festival website received hits 523,545 hits during the peak promotional period from the soft launch of the website in March to the end of the festival in May (please see chart on next page)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010

Unique Number of Month Pages Hits Bandwidth visitors visits Jan 2010 745 1015 3067 39130 481.26 MB Feb 2010 746 1008 3602 31791 364.10 MB Mar 2010 1878 2608 14390 111760 1.32 GB Apr 2010 2017 2845 14866 103951 1.40 GB May 2010 5491 8313 43765 307834 4.19 GB Jun 2010 491 679 2209 13189 189.83 MB Jul 2010 0 0 0 0 0 Total 11368 16468 81899 607655 7.92 GB

conclusions

The 2010 Belfast Children’s Festival brought new heights of attendance. The volume of activity and attendances soared during a bright early summer. Working in partnership with supporters and venues, a high level of media coverage was achieved throughout the festival and in advance. Praise for the high standard of activities was consistent and the quality of work on offer was very high. The presence of children in the venues was significant and the use of the exhibition spaces alongside events and added value free activities worked extremely well. The festival attracted returning and new audiences while also maintaining high levels of access

Successes  Delivering a high quality international arts festival for children across a variety of arts and non-art venues  Offering many free drop-in events, encouraging people of all ages and abilities to get involved and visit festival venues  Continuing to run the Friendship Fund and Community Ticket Scheme, to help those experiencing hardship to access the festival by providing assisted transport, tickets and supplementary workshops  Observing best practice in all aspects of the volunteer programme, as the organisation approaches the end of the Investing in Volunteers process

Young at Art concludes that with your help the 2010 festival was a success on which future festivals can be built.

Appendix i Websites listing the Belfast Children’s Festival www.facebook.com, www.youngatart.co.uk , www.bing.com, www.irlandando.it, www.artscouncil-ni.org, www.visitbritain.co.uk, www.sobaku.net, www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/ , www.theaa.com, www.whatsonni.com, www.childrensfestival.ca, www.watershedtheatre.com, http://trishamcnally.blogspot.com, www.irishtheatreonline.com/ita/Festival.aspx, http://alifesizedpaperdoll.blogspot.com, www.deabirkett.com, www.tya-uk.org www.15secondfilmfestival.com, http://twitter.com/garrett_carr, http://northern-ireland-theatre.page.co.uk, www.visitbritain.com, www.belfastchildrensweek.com, www.ramprage.tv, http://greensheenblogger.blogspot.com, www.gotobelfast.com, www.noalibis.com, www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/artsextra, www.childrenslaureate.org.uk. www.irishtimes.com, www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk, www.ni4kids.com, www.eventful.com, www.waterfront.co.uk, www.mybelfast.co.uk, www.gobelfast.com, www.discovernorthernireland.com, www.goireland.com, www.visitsouthbelfast.com, www.iheartau.com, www.sluggerotoole.com, www.digimumsni.co.uk, www.naughtongallery.org, www.wimps.tv, www.culturenorthernireland.org, www.communityni.org, www.belfast-rocks.com, www.advertiser24.co.uk, www.eveningnews12.co.uk, www.translink.co.uk, www.belfast.livechatforum.co.uk, www.place.uk.net, www.ents24.com, www.visitbritain.com, www.niccy.org, www.news.ulster.ac.uk, www.belfastcity.gov.uk, www.secretbelfast.co.uk, www.community.vivastreet.co.uk, www.thebestof.co.uk, www.newtownardschronicle.co.uk, www.californiachronicle.com,