If you build it - they will come

This was the instinctual feeling of the organisers of the first Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival in 2000, and in the event, the Festival’s success exceeded everyone’s expectations.

For seven sun drenched days in early May, for the first time in many years, people from all over the city and beyond converged on the streets of Belfast’s north city centre to celebrate the best local talent while also enjoying some of the best new national and international talent across a wide range of artforms.

The Festival was a joint initiative by Laganside Corporation and The Community Arts Forum both of whom have a shared interest in the regeneration of Belfast’s city-centre through the arts and cultural sectors. The Festival was based on a perceived gap in arts provision for younger, less mainstream audiences, a perceived gap in arts provision during the good weather of early summer and the conviction that arts should be widely available in centrally located, accessible venues.

In the Autumn of 1999 a Management Committee was formed comprising of a number of key individuals from arts organisations based in the area and Chaired by the distinguished actor and Director, Ian McElhinney. The challenge was to devise a programme that would highlight the social, celebratory and enjoyable aspects of engagements with the arts without compromising the highest standards of excellence, professionalism and challenge.

What was perhaps most surprising to the Management Committee was the tremendous breadth of artistic activity already happening in the area. This included a circus school, a musician’s collective, two art galleries and a College of Art, a media resource centre, the Community Arts Forum, creative writing organisations, as well as cafe’s and bars strongly identified with arts activity. It soon became clear to the organisers that a Festival to celebrate all this activity was, quite simply, an idea waiting to happen.

The Management Committee met on a monthly basis during the winter and spring 1999/2000 during which time it adopted a formal constitution and applied for Charitable status. In April 2001the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival became a company limited by guarantee with an independent bank account. Charitable status is pending.

The Festival was extremely fortunate in having Laganside as a core sponsor from the outset, as well as having monies allocated from the Millennium Festivals. Funding was also secured from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, Arts & Business, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Dunloe Ewart, Belfast City Council Events, The Esme Mitchell Trust and the Enkalon Foundation. An inaugural ‘Friends of the Festival’ scheme was launched which brought support from the Northern Bank, Harry Ramsden’s, the Cutter’s Wharf and the Europa Hotel.

With funding of some £80,000 in place, the Festival Director, in partnership with the arts organisations in the area began assembling a programme that would take in music, comedy, literature, film, visual art, circus, street theatre and traditional arts. It was clear from an early stage that post-agreement Belfast has a certain cachet amongst artists with performers such as Germaine Greer, Rob Newman, Bill Drummond agreeing to take part almost immediately, in some cases for just a nominal fee. Despite having secured a number of artists of international stature, the Festival that emerged was in no way ‘celebrity’ driven but contained a very strong ‘fringe’ or alternative ethos. Indeed it was the very organic, local feel to the Festival that drew much of the positive comment and goodwill towards the Festival.

The Festival was also keen to promote a strong ‘hands on’ and participative approach to the arts and included a wide range of workshops in everything from percussion to digital film-making to stand-up comedy thus ensuring that audience would be more than mere passive consumers at arts events. A strong young people’s literature programme was devised to enhance the teaching of English and featuring people like Ian MacMillan, Barnsley Football Club’s Writer in Residence and the world renowned author Bernard MacLaverty.

The organisers also endeavoured to be as creative as possible in the programming of spaces in the area and as a result venues ranged from Irish traditional music in a boat on the Lagan ‘Folk on a Boat’, to theatre in upstairs lounges in pubs, to Opera in St. George’s Market.

In developing a marketing strategy for the Festival, the organisers felt that in addition to the more traditional marketing approaches such as newspaper advertising in the Belfast Telegraph, the Irish News, and the Newsletter, new and creative approaches to marketing had to be harnessed to reflect the new and innovative nature of the project.

A web-site was up and running within weeks and began receiving a steady number of ‘hits’. Radio adverts were played on rotation on Citybeat. Using the award from Arts and Business, two billboard sites were booked and proved to be so effective that a third soon followed. 30,000 ‘At a Glance’ guides were produced and distributed as inserts in the Community Telegraph. A strong ‘live’ mailing list was built by collating the mailing lists of organisations such as Northern Visions, The Creative Writers Network and Catalyst Arts. All ticket purchasers and telephone callers for programmes had their addresses logged for future mailouts.

Much credit is due to the work of Tonic, responsible for the design of all promotional material. The design work was highly attractive, easy to navigate and captured perfectly the ethos and values of the Festival. This campaign garnered much positive comment and helped create what many referred to as ‘a great buzz’ about the Festival. Ultimately the Festival almost began to market itself due to the aforementioned ‘buzz’ and very strong word of mouth.

The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is now an independent body with a proven track record and should be well placed to attract significant outside funding. The Festival now plans to expand further this year, (May 1-11, 2003), with the appointment of a new Audience Development Officer and the addition of a brand new venue – the festival marquee. Clearly, artistically, socially and economically, the case for a Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival has been strongly made and what remains would seem to be questions of scale, levels of funding and various other practical issues. All those who took part had a shared sense of participating in something new, vibrant and dynamic and something which perhaps will mark a turning point in the regeneration of this most historic part of Belfast.