SouthWestFest has just launched its first ever crowdfund campaign, and is asking it’s supporters to help fund a reimagined safe and socially distanced festival for 2021.

Check out the page here: https://www.spacehive.com/southwestfest-reimagined

The crowdfund campaign hosted on Spacehive, is part of the #crowdfundwestminster initiative. This pairs large grant givers with crowdfund projects, however these funders will only consider pledging to projects if they can see it has the community’s support – this is shown through small donations from local community members.

SouthWestFest is looking to raise just over £12,000 by January, however the first hurdle comes at the end of November, when the large grant givers will consider the festival’s campaign and decide if they are going to donate. To help the festival show that they have the support of the local community they are asking for the public to pledge, comment and like their campaign page on Spacehive to raise awareness.

The hope is between small local donations, and larger donations from the initiative’s funding pots in November, that the festival can reach its target by the end of January 2021.

Funding will help the organisation organise a 3 week Festival Programme between June and July 2021, offering fun, free, accessible and entertaining socially distanced events held in outdoor spaces, indoor venues and online with partner organisations from across the area.

Joanna Goodey, Festival Director said “Although we may not be able to bring back our big outdoor community festival weekend events in St Georges Square, we still plan on creating a festival celebrating the area for all the community to enjoy. We have some great plans for socially distanced performances, art trails and workshops as well as digital events which can be enjoyed from the comfort of your own home. 2020 has been an incredibly hard year for so many and we want to offer the public something to look forward to and a way to bring our community together again.”

There are two easy ways to support the festival’s campaign:

1) To pledge financial support to the project page – please pledge here: www.spacehive.com/southwestfest-reimagined

Any amount from £2 upwards is a fantastic help, 100 people donating £2 shows more local support to the large funders than 1 person donating £100 (but if you want to donate big don’t let us stop you – we really need all the help we can get!).

2) To share the project through your networks, social media and marketing to help us raise awareness across the area.

We want to thank you in advance for your ongoing support and commitment to the festival!

Team SWF

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In light of the global pandemic, our actions moving forward must shift. Be part of the plans and help us shape our future!

If you are a Resident/Community Member/Participant click here
If you are a Partner/Organisation click here

We want to hear your thoughts and needs to guide our delivery of the Festival for 2021…

Many thanks and please share!

We have been looking at all the generous feedback from participants and organisations about their experiences of our Digital Festival and have collated this all into our Impact Report!

Take a look at the full document online here

 

Our Digital Festival took place between the 6th – 12th of July, with an amazing programme 70+ events and activities which took place online, over 7 days.

We were overwhelmed by the incredible response from local organisations and groups, who we want to thank, for getting involved and adding their own exciting and inspiring events to the open access programme.

We also want to thank all the artists and practitioners who took part in our commissioned programme and helped us create some special event highlights through out the week.

We must also mention our thanks to Karen Turner and cave, for curating our first ever online and on foot Art Trail, which was an incredible success and we are grateful to the 20 local artists who participated and presented their artwork in a socially distanced, fun and safe way!

Finally, we want to thank The Pimlico Million  who co-funded the Digital Festival with us and made this fantastic week of online events possible.

If you took part in one of our online events or activities, we would love to get your feedback for our evaluation. You can fill our our short feedback form here.

 

The Full Programme for our Digital Festival is here, with the ticket links to our specially commissioned events now live!

Specially Commissioned Events:

Get Crafty with Pimlico Picassos | 25 June(!) – 12 JulyA series of easy follow along videos, where you can learn how to make your own Happiness bunting to string up at home!No registration necessary!

Origami Workshop with Coco Sato | Monday 6 July, 11amLearn how to make an Origami Star which you can hang up in your window at home ready to celebrate Tanabata – known as the Star Festival!
Ticket link: shorturl.at/ixzH9

Happy Body with Brian Richmond PT | Tuesday 7 July, 11.30am
A fun dynamic and energising total body exercise session designed for the entire family!
Ticket link: shorturl.at/gkpwy

Grow-a-Story with Arkem | Tuesday 7 July, 1-2pm & 4-5pm
Create a story of your own, make collaboratively together, and add your own creative clip to a group story growing across the week!

 

The Social Sketch Up with Sketch Appeal | Wednesday 8 July, 8pm
Unleash your creativity at this fun portrait-sketching session for grown-ups – not a ‘serious’ drawing class!

 

Move to Happy with Brian Richmond PT | Thursday 9 July, 11.30am
Sitting or standing this fun energising mobility and movement class aims to free up the body, engage the mind and have you feeling happy!

 

Comedy Workshop with City Lions and ComedyClub4Kids | Friday 10 July, 5pm
Award-winning Ben Target will help find the funny in your own experiences & turn it into confidently-delivered stand-up!

 

Comedy Gig with City Lions and ComedyClub4Kids| Friday 10 July, 6.40pm
Award-winning Australian comedian Alice Fraser will deliver a short sharp set!

 

Cook and Eat Happy & Competition with Community Champions | Saturday 11 July, 11am
Learn how to cook Mexican Chicken Fajitas with sides, drink and desert – prize for best looking dish sent in!
No registration necessary!

 

Instruction to Happiness with | Sunday 12 July, 5pm
Working with SW1 locals we’ve created a live art performance – join us for this exploration and celebration of happiness!
No registration necessary!

 

We have teamed up with cave to produce the Online and On Foot Art Trail as part of our Digital Festival.

We are taking submissions now from artists within SW1 to participate. This would involve showing your work publicly as part of our (soon to be released) online exhibition and safely in windows, gardens and on doorsteps between 6th -12th July 2020.

Promote your work and yourselves by getting involved!

If you are interested and would like more information, please email Karen at cavepimlico@gmail.com

Deadline for submissions Monday the 22nd June 2020

Our Festival Coordinator and artist Dodie Finamore is running the ‘Instruction to Happiness’ project as part of our Digital Festival. This will be a community based research led project exploring ‘happiness’ – the theme of the festival – culminating in a digital live art community performance on Sunday 12th July.

From Dodie:
I’m interested in the idea of ‘happiness’, and how it is difficult to feel in this pandemic.

Happiness is a feeling, but can we make it? Can we perform it? Can we fake it til’ we make it? Can we manifest it?

The lasting effects of coronavirus on individuals and communities will be felt long after lockdown lifts – can we create a resource for producing happiness?

To help us build the research for this project please fill out the short questionnaire below about ‘happiness’ and how it impacts your movements!

https://forms.gle/zDEZCvf4JGhYLqfV8

Do you or your organisation have an online event or activity that will be taking place between Monday 6th and Sunday 12th July 2020? Have you been thinking about putting on a digital event or activity but haven’t had the means to do so? Now’s your chance!

There are only 5 days left to register your events in our Digital Festival programme, by 5pm on Monday 15th June.

Why Take Part?

– Partners are offered free registration, for listing of their own online event, activity or workshop

– Registered partners will have their activities hosted on our online festival diary, and promoted via our social media platforms

– SouthWestFest will work with registered partners to collectively market and promote all Digital Festival activities

– The Digital Festival will in turn support our partners by celebrating and highlighting their work to new audiences and signposting the community to their services

Click here for the registration link!

A fresh SouthWestFest…

Though this pandemic continues to run its course through our communities, it has given us the chance to reflect, refresh and find new ways of working. Today we start energised and excited to announce that, through funding from The Pimlico Million we are able to produce our first ever Digital Festival!

SouthWestFest’s Digital Festival will run from Monday 6th to Sunday 12th July 2020, and will be a week of curated online events and will host an open-access programme of online activities and events that our local partners and organisations can submit. 

Head to our Take Part page to find out more on how to get involved! 

This goes hand-in-hand with launching our brand new website, designed by the wonderful ZeroDotNine  portraying SouthWestFest as it is – useful, bright and full of joy. It goes beautifully with our new logo revealed back in March – designed by boon studio –  and we hope it is efficient as well as aesthetic!

Thank you for sticking with us, keep an eye here and on our online channels for more updates and announcements to follow…