Festival Toolkit: Ideas and Concepts

Start planning for a new festival by choosing the type of festival carefully, and match the festival to its purpose (time of year, duration, location and target audience). Use a guideline of: What? Why? When? Where? By whom? How?

Some questions to consider include:

  •       What kind of festival?
  •       Who will organise the festival? (Individual/committee)
  •       Is it commercial or charitable?
  •       Where is it going to be held, and is the site suitable?
  •       When is it to happen?
  •       Will it be an open air festival?
  •       Is it in a number of venues in the village, town, or city?
  •       Who is it aimed at?
  •       What kind of programme do you want?
  •       How will it be funded?
  •       Will you have enough time and resources to do it?
  •       Will it clash with any other major event in the area?

The three key decisions to make are What, When and Where.  Even if your festival has been running for some years, it can be useful to revisit these questions and make sure you are achieving what you want to.

Information on this section has been gathered from the following toolkits, so visit these for further information:

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