Feste Ambassadors Scheme

Including community ambassadors to influence and plan a more inclusive and artistically coulourful festival

Féste has established a collaboration with two external projects and many organisations through an ambassadors scheme to shape the programme of the festival in a different and collaborative way, in order to reach new audiences and reinforce relationship between the festival and the city's communities.

Feste has been working with community leaders for the 3 years prior to this edition and this had led to a strong relationship between the festival and the varied communities that populate the city. This has been done through face to face communication and a commitment to regularly attending one off community events and weekly clubs that these communities have organised. As such Feste has not only built trust with these communities, but also has now a real sense of what they are producing and what it means to them culturally, as a community and artistically. This has meant that teh festival is not simply approaching these groups to offer them a project based offer, but that it is integrated into their artistic output and therefore can ensure that the legacy and impact of the project is as high as possible.

Through accessing communities through gateway individuals and giving them ownership of the festival through the opportunity to programme, perform and support the festival in other ways, Feste has been able to involve a wide range of diverse communities in a lasting way. The methodology is simply to ensure that these communities feel valued and excited by what the festival means to them and this is done through relationship management.

This year Féste collaborated with two external projects and many organisations that helped to shape the programme of activity. The Urban Choir was developed by Baby People and consists of 15 core performers from three different schools. This group performed three times over the Féste weekend as part of the Inner City Showcase event, at the Feste launch and on the People’s Stage on the Saturday night. A skate competition was also devised that brought together the most recognised organisations in skating that are based in Derbyshire, to develop the competition alongside Derby Feste. Roma Community Care work with young Roma people in the region and through this organisation the festival was able to work with young people to develop a music video that was showcased at the Inner City Showcase. This project was a continuation of the work that was done last year with this community and although Féste’s relationship is not yet at the same level as it is with many other targeted groups, this is a vital part of strengthening that relationship going forward. Important progress has been made over the years through the development activity undertaken. Audiences who attended the Inner City Showcase event ranged from Facebook Families, Roma, young people and the skate community. A large percentage of the audience members present at the event had previously never engaged in Féste or Derby’s wider cultural offer and so to invest them in this event, was a very critical step. The young people performing and who were engaged in this year’s festival were also from a wide range of communities and from feedback forms collected, these young people felt extremely pleased with themselves, their performances and the opportunities the festival offered. As such, approaching these communities and groups is becoming easier, due to the lasting and continuous level of engagement throughout the last few years.