Battle Plans!

[Nodger]

So Song 07 has gone but that gives us all the time we need to ensure that Song 08 goes ahead! Do you have any ideas or schemes that will help? Let us know here!!

;D

[Lambchop]

I was genuinely gutted to hear about the festival's demise. I would have imagined that the Town of Huddersfield and Kirklees as a whole stood to benefit from such a high profile event and an influx of potential trade/business.

:'(

It's obviously crucial to get Kirklees Council fully behind next year's planned event. The organisers need to meet with local councillors too, to allay any unfounded fears of problems for local residents. Get ambassadors from other major events (Leeds Festival / Breeze etc.) to meet with interested parties and highlight the benefits to the local & regional communities which can arise from these type of festivals. Local hotels & caterers could be brought into the pro-campaign... any locally-based business or service which stands to profit from the influx of thousands of visitors - bus companies, rail operators, taxi firms etc. Get the support of Huddersfield's Town Centre Partnership of traders.

Do some pro-campaigning via "Fringe"/"Warm-up" gigs from Jan onwards to raise awareness in and around Huddersfield - use The Lawrence Batley Theatre to host these and the Picturedrome in Holmfirth. Talk about dates for these events soon... programming happens well in advance.

Court the Huddersfield Daily Examiner and/or Home 107.9FM as Media Partners... give them exclusive hospitality deals and access to acts - you will need the Media on your side.

Start a pro-festival campaign - online if necessary - get local bands involved - you may have to programme trhem onto a stage at the festival but they could help with starting the groundswell of public support... especially from the younger generations.

The opposition from local residents is the key factor which will need to be overcome - are there any lessons which can be learned from the established festivals? I'm sure they've all encountered similar difficulties at some stage in their evolution.

If Shelley can host a successful festival, then I'm sure Honley/Huddersfield can do it too.

Good luck with the future.

;)

[dys]

i noticed 15,000 people were at the honley show at the weekend. If they can cope with that without protesting then they can cope with this great festival!
lke your comments lambchop - i agree with all of those.
Promoting is the key, and i'll help you guys in any way

[TONY LEVY]

Me too

XXX

[Oliver Hargreaves]

Hi Everybody,

I have come across your festival website whilst browsing the internet and just wanted to say how sorry I am that this event has been cancelled. It sounded like a great event. Good luck to everyone connected with the Song Festival in getting it going for next year.

I too am looking into starting a festival next summer in Gloucestershire so can appreciate some of the problems you have come across. My best advice to you guys is to get the festival some publicity. It is clear that by getting to such a late stage of organising this thing that you have got pretty much all the management side of the event sorted but to be honest, unless I would have really looked hard I would have never come across the festival anywhere. It was by pure chance I saw it on the Levellers website whilst browsing a couple of weeks ago.

I appreciate that I am down in Gloucestershire but I am from Leeds and am a regular visitor up there, I am also a bit of a festival nut and am regularly checking out sites like virtualfestivals.com and efestivals.co.uk but had never come across it (although now I have looked I can see it listed)

I know that the internet is not the b all and end all of marketing for events like this but they can provide a very useful and cost effective tool if used well. Network with other festivals, bands, community groups and get on MySpace which can be used as an excellent way to get the festival known by loads of different people.

If I were you I’d use this summer as a way to drum up support for what potentially is a fantastic event and use this as a base to build on.

Best of luck to you all

Oliver Hargreaves
A fellow festival promoter (hopefully!)

[Nodger]

Welcome to the board Lambchop and oliver - some great comments there! -
I believe that when an event of this nature has been cancelled, after much anticipation, it can create a groundswell of efforts redoubled and a real focusing of minds - as demonstrated by the ideas being brought forth on this board -
By keeping the board ticking over I hope we can develope a repository of plans we can present to simon and others on the Song festival team to not only help and inspire them but to let them know that the event was well supported and that support will only continue to grow - keep up the good work and SPREAD THE WORD!!

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Nodger]

Just wanted to let everyone know that it was paypal that made a huge error with the song 07 refunds and not simon and the guys - just in case you spoke to paypal, as i did, who accuses the organisers as potential fraudsters!!! (i feel a paypal boycott coming on!)
Just to clear that one up!

J

[dys]

I spoke to paypal regarding my refund but they didn't accuse the organisers of fraudsters!
However, they didn't refund me until i gave them a nudge! tut tut naughty paypal

[Nodger]

Thats good news Dys my man! I hope it was only me!! how things with u then?