Ever wondered how you go about setting up a poetry festival? When should you start planning, how much work is involved, and how many volunteers do you need? Greg Freeman talks to Stephen Boyce, pictured, co-artistic director and trustee of Winchester poetry festival, which will be staged for the first time in September this year, and which has ambitions to make the same mark as Scotland’s Stanza festival at St Andrews, as well as those at Ledbury and Aldeburgh.   

 

How did the idea of staging the Winchester poetry festival come about, and when? Who else were/are involved?

The three founding trustees, Robert Hutchison, Keiren Phelan and I, worked together in the arts for several years and share a love of poetry. It was Robert who suggested that, if you take St Andrews, Aldeburgh and Ledbury as three points of a poetry diamond, the fourth point naturally falls in Winchester. This was some two years ago and our principal criteria at that stage were to enjoy the process and not to fall out. Robert founded the Wilfred Owen Association and is vice-chair of the Poetry Society, Keiren was for many years the region’s highly regarded Arts Council literature officer, I’m a published poet, so we all bring slightly different perspectives and interests to our task. We immediately set about thinking who we would want to see on the bill and what we needed to do to achieve our ambition. So we set up a charity and invited a number of people with skills and experience in education, marketing and literature to join us as trustees. The core team is seven trustees plus three volunteers (treasurer, Friends organiser, minute secretary), adviser (Hampshire county council's literature officer) and a part-time festival manager.

 

What did you identify as your priorities?

We were determined to do things well, to organise an event that would be a credit to Winchester and put poetry on the map in this part of England. Because we were aiming for 2014 it was fitting that for this first festival we should commemorate the poetry of the first world war and celebrate Hampshire’s contribution to our literary heritage – as well as giving audiences a shot in the arm of the best contemporary poetry. These three themes are seamlessly interwoven in our programme which includes readings, talks, local engagement with schools and community groups, workshops on the craft of poetry and a number of impromptu events. We sought out well-known names whose work we admired, such as Michael Longley, Patience Agbabi, Jackie Kay, David Constantine and Julia Copus and we are giving a platform to newer voices such as Zena Edwards and Olivia McCannon. We also see partnership as a serious priority, so we are working with Magma, the Wilfred Owen Association, the Poetry Society and locally with Winchester Discovery Centre and Winchester College, among others.

 

I understand you have some Arts Council funding. Was that difficult to obtain? Did it come with strings attached?

Funding is never easy, particularly so in the current highly competitive environment. We put a lot of work into the application and I think it helped considerably that we had a provisional programme well in advance. It demonstrated our level of ambition and competence. The only strings are that we have to report on our success, or otherwise, and since we ourselves very much want to learn from this experience, that’s not in the least onerous. The real value of the Arts Council funding is that it has given us credibility with other funders and sponsors, and enabled us to employ an experienced part-time festival manager, both of which are of significant benefit.

 

Do you have festival sponsors? How did you go about finding those?

We have achieved a good balance of public and private sources of funding and are keeping our fingers crossed for the earned income. In addition to support from our two local authorities, Winchester city council and Hampshire county council, a number of trusts are supporting us and we have attracted sponsorship from several local businesses. We drew up a menu of sponsorship opportunities and benefits, and trustees made personal approaches to businesses where we had a contact. The key is often the quality of the personal contact. We are very pleased with the support we've achieved, but there is always room to accommodate others. I should add that we have set up a Friends’ organisation and already have over 50 people contributing, which bodes well for the future. The income is vital, but so is the interest and commitment that it demonstrates.

 

You’ve said the festival will be biennial. Is that just because of the amount of work involved?

Yes, that's the main reason. We didn't want to overreach ourselves and we are determined to maintain quality, so it seemed sensible to think of the festival happening every other year. However, we are planning to promote other occasional events in between times, partly to maintain a presence, but also because we believe the interest is there.

 

You’re setting up the Winchester poetry festival from scratch. How much time does that process require, do you think? Did you seek advice from existing festivals?

The one thing I would say is, don't underestimate the time required to do something like this. We have a great bunch of trustees and everyone brings skills and commitment and is playing their part. Nonetheless, you have to be constantly on the ball, planning and implementing. We did visit other festivals to learn as much as we could about what works and what the audience needs, and we have borrowed shamelessly from the experience of others. Next time should be easier and we will have good experience, relationships and systems to draw on, but I imagine it will still need all the time we can give it.

 

I’m assuming that you will be aided at the festival by a team of volunteers. How many do you think you are going to need?

Volunteers are already playing a vital role. For instance Vanessa Davis, who is a trustee of the Wilfred Owen Association, volunteered to set up and manage our Friends organisation, which she has done with great drive and skill. All our trustees are volunteers and Madelaine Smith, our part-time festival manager, is the only paid employee. We will be working with the volunteers at Winchester Discovery Centre, our principal venue, and recruiting others to provide visitor information and other tasks, including, we hope, some students from the University of Winchester. In all we might well need 30 people over the course of the weekend. The key will be to ensure they are well briefed and easily identifiable!

 

What is your overall vision for the festival? How do you hope that it might develop?

I think perhaps the key thing is that it should become a recognised fixture in the national poetry calendar and make a valued contribution to what makes Winchester an attractive place to live and to visit. To succeed in this the festival will need to build a reputation and develop a distinctive character. We are confident we have made a good start, we have a great line-up, a good range of events, some excellent partnerships – all we need now are the audiences.