Christopher BarrettThe Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has outlined details of the next edition of its annual Festival Congress, which has been expanded from one to two days.
The 5-6 February event, which will once again be staged at Bristol Beacon, will for the first time include a second day that AIF said would provide an extended opportunity for networking along with an open session for emerging young professional talent and students that is being created in partnership with BIMM Bristol.
The association said the annual B2B gathering for independent festival organisers has already seen 150 industry professionals sign up, and that the event will include ‘lightning’ talks, interactive breakout workshops and panels sessions. The programme will cover a range of topics including the Value of Independence, Degrowth, Festival Discovery and Martyn’s Law. The day programme will conclude with a panel session involving festival organisers who are bringing events back from fallow years or launching new events.
The Congress will also involve three networking sessions; one created for multi-venue festival organisers, another aim at Welsh festival organisers, and a third focussed soley on event production agencies.
A post-conference after-party is to be staged at Lost Horizons, in partnership with Togather.
AIF CEO John Rostron said, “This has been an incredibly tough year for the UK’s independent festival sector, but this event never fails to make me proud of our community. We have record cancellations this year, 78 so far, but we also have some incredible stories to celebrate.
“Through this hardship AIF membership has grown to record numbers, and the independent festival community is together to take this fight on. The Festival Congress is the biggest date in our calendar to meet, discuss challenges and exchange ideas, but it’s also an opportunity to witness our strength in numbers and the sheer resilience, creativity and camaraderie that keeps us all going.”