Proposal Festival Musik Queen Square
Proposal Festival Musik Queen Square
Proposal Festival Musik Queen Square
A. Introduction
. Square is the site of a national award winning project to restore a magnificent
Georgian square to its former glory. The project started in September 1999 and has been
completed in 2004. The restoration work has created an impressive and tranquil event
space in the heart of Center. The broad range and high quality of both City
Council and externally promoted events is an indication of the attractiveness of the square
and serves to celebrate the completed work.
. is musically and culturally a diverse city. A key strand of .'s bid for
European Capital of Culture was to create more platforms for and a wider public exposure
of high quality and diverse contemporary music in the City. .'s designation as a
cultural city of excellence brings with it some recognition of the vibrant local music scene.
To celebrate that, and as part of . City Council's continuing commitment to the
promotion and celebration of the City's culture.
New Jazz 2002 and 2003 were exciting programmes of after work and evening
concerts on . Square in august featuring around 20 musical artistes, interspersed
with alternative cabaret and performance poetry. We are currently considering keeping
with New Jazz 2004 or renaming the event to reflect an anticipated broader musical
programme.
Also featured was King Cotton, a compelling and ambitious 19 strong Community
based jazz musical project with music written in a New Jazz style describing the history of
Cotton making in Barton Hill .. This was a stunning line up of musicians from the East
. Jazz Club and the piece describes a little known but very important story of .'s
Working class history with implications for understanding the way . is today.
The aims of the concert series were:
New Jazz 2002 tested out the idea of using . Square for such events. New Jazz
2003 built on that success, but also developed and extended the programme. This is both in
terms of increasing the number of events and the range of performers featured. This year,
the series was marketed through the specially commissioned www. website, 20,000
programmes, posters, banners, LED screen video clips, invitations and a press and media
profiling through venue, evening post and radio and broadcast partners.
The event has established a strong identity and secured popular local support.
However, opportunities now exist to expand the programme, improve the overall audience
experience and significantly realize the events publicity potential.
. City Council is seeking to develop a two until three year sponsorship of the .
Square Music Festival, based on exciting plans to develop the content of the event and raise
its profile still further.
B. The Event
New Jazz has grown to include an extremely varied and exciting programme. Highlights
of the 2003 festival were
a. Quality restaurant BBQ catering from local businesses, The Mud Dock, The River
and Il Bordello
b. Live performance poetry competition The New Jazz Slam
c. Innovative cabaret
C. Market Research
Research at the . Square Festival has confirmed that the aspects of the festival
which people like the most are:
Additionally, people have identified that they would like to see the following
improved or added to the festival:
a. The successful friday lunchtime and afterwork format with occasional weekend
dates in August could be expanded to include further weekend dates and early
September dates.
b. Develop programme to include traditional jazz/blues, world music, classical,
open mike and explore further poetry slam and silent cinema opportunities. .
Silents/Watershed collaboration to produce a series of outdoor film events to be
screened as part of the established New Jazz programme - live music events
accompanying silent shorts. Watershed has the experience and contacts to provide
outside projection on a scale necessary for these screenings. . Silents has been
developing an expertise over the past two years in the screening and programming of
live silent cinema events at Watershed and elsewhere including the Barbican.
a. Title sponsorship of an already popular and rapidly emerging event with real
creative potential . Square Festival in the most prestigious public park in .,
the regional capital of the South West.
b. Profile raising opportunity through pre-event publicity and PR, on site branding
and media coverage.
c. Promotional opportunities on event site to a potential 100,000 people on launch
day at the Harbour Festival and thereafter 2,000 5,000 people.
d. Branding to appear on all printed material and digital media; including web pages,
LED display screen, posters, promotional flyers, city centre sail structure banner, banners
and other on-site branding.
e. Press advertising in the . Evening Post, Venue and other key
publications.
f. . Evening Post promotional feature.
g. Promotional feature in Venue Magazine.
h. Coverage in . City Councils . News, delivered to every
household in . (approximately 400,000 people).
i. On-air promotion with . City Councils media partner, currently GWR.
j. . City Council will seek to maximise pre and post event publicity, issuing
material to all local media outlets, including BBC and HTV.
In order to bring about the above plans for the . Square Festival, sponsorship income
needs to be increased. The options for achieving this are:
a. Title sponsorship of ,
b. Title sponsorship of , plus , income from supporting sponsors. The
key
a. Music Stage ,
b. Live Poetry Slam ,
c. Watershed Outdoor Screen Option
,
We are happy to negotiate the title sponsorship fee, and therefore the level of any
supporting sponsorship. Equally, we are keen to secure a two until three year title
sponsorship contract. This will enable an on going programme of improvements to the
event aimed at maintaining and developing the . Square Festival as one of .s
premier events.
G.Summary
. City Council believes the potential exists for the . Square Festival to attain a
regional and national profile as an original, creative music and performing arts festival. The
opportunity now exists for sponsors to lift this emerging event into a widely popular and
established part of the regional event calendar. We would be delighted to work with sponsors to
develop the event and to realize its full publicity potential.