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History of Bollington Festivals
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Planning and preparation for the 1980 Festival
Preparation for the fourth Bollington Festival began about eighteen
month before the Festival was due to take place, with an informal
meeting of a group of the previous Festival Committee members.
Possible themes for the 1980 Festival were discussed and the
subject “Man and Nature” chosen.
Six months later, an Open Meeting was held in the Civic Hall.
This, although better attended than a similar meeting held
before the 1974 Festival, did not attract overwhelming support,
but this did not cause concern among the convenors of the
meeting. In Dr Coope’s experience, “We always find that people
come to our assistance if we push ahead bravely.”
At this meeting the Festival Committee was formed, Dr Coope
being re-elected Chairman and a professional accountant being
appointed Treasurer. Other important positions included a
Secretary, Grounds and Accommodation Officer (responsible
for the hiring of marquees and the overall supervision of
the Festival Centre at the Recreation Ground), Ticket Secretary,
Design Consultant, Brochure Editor, Arts Liaison Officer,
Publicity Officer and an officer in charge of fund raising.
Previously fund raising had not been treated as a separate
entity but for the 1980 Festival it was decided to give the
Fund Raising Committee a target of £2,000 to be raised during
the twelve months before the Festival began. Officers to
preside over arrangements for the band contest and Festival
Ball which it was hoped would take place during the Festival
Fortnight were also appointed. The remaining places on the
Committee were filled by representatives of the various Bollington
societies and groups – Choir, Sports, Folk Group, Festival
Players, Churches, Schools, Leisure Association (formed after
the opening, in 1977, of the Bollington Leisure Centre),
Country Dance Art Group, Light Opera Group and Horticultural
Society.
The Open Meeting also provided an opportunity for those present
who were not elected to the Committee to form themselves
into groups according to the various ways in which they were
willing to help – potential caterers and stewards, for example,
are always in particular demand during a festival.
Finally the dates of the 1980 Festival were confirmed as
being from Friday 23rd May to Wednesday 4th June.
The Open Meeting marked the starting point of a year’s intensive
planning and preparation by the various societies and sub-committees,
which reported back to the main Committee every two months at first,
and then more frequently as the Festival date approached.
Co-ordination of events and finance formed the core of the Festival
Committee’s work. Arranging over fifty events in such a way as
to avoid conflicts between major attractions and, at the same
time, accommodating the limitations of date imposed by certain
items, particularly those involving professional artists, is
a very difficult and time-consuming task. The production of
Handel’s masque “Acis and Galatea”, though admittedly the most
ambitious (and costly) event of the fortnight, posed many problems
in this respect as it involved, among others, four professional
soloists each with a crowded diary of engagements, the Legrand
Ensemble and the use of the Great Hall in Adlington Hall, for
which, of course, special permission from Mr Charles Legh,
the owner, was required.
Finance must surely be one of the main areas of concern to any
Festival organising committee. The hiring of marquees, props
and costumes, the printing of publicity material and the payment
of professional artists, to name only the most obvious areas
of expenditure, involve considerable cost which clearly cannot
be met through ticket sales alone! Twelve months before Bollington
Festival began, the Festival Committee had £300 in the kitty
which represented a proportion of profits from the previous
Festival. To this amount, the Committee was hoping over the
next year, to add £2,000 from the efforts of the specially
appointed Fund Raising Committee. In fact, by the beginning
of May, 1980, this target had been reached and surpassed, £2,200
having been raised through a fashion show, cheese and wine
evening and other similar events. The Fund Raising Committee’s
work culminated on the last Saturday of the Festival itself
with a Festival Grand Draw in which the first prize was a football
autographed by the members of the Manchester United Football
Team. Raffle tickets for the football were sold as far afield
as Glasgow, Belfast and Salt Lake City!
Finally, revenue came from the sale of publications, souvenirs,
tickets and programmes. Publications included the Festival
Brochure, the booklet “When Nancy was Young” – first published
as mentioned above in 1974, a booklet by W. S. Broster entitled
“Bollington and Kerridge 1830 – 1980” and a beautifully illustrated
set of “Walks Around Bollington”, specially created for the
1980 Bollington Festival. Festival T-shirts, attractively
designed, in a variety of colours, so as to incorporate the
“Man and Nature” logo, glassware and dusters were among the
souvenirs for sale, and the various programmes included a Bollington
Festival Choir Souvenir programme.
Publicity for the 1980 Festival
Carefully planned publicity is essential for the success
of any venture, be it a Parents’ Association Film Show
at a local school or a performance of “Swan Lake” at Covent
Garden. The basic task of the publicity officer is to
convey accurate information to as many potential “consumers”
as possible, using all the means at his disposal, which may
range from simple word-of-mouth messages and home-made
posters to coverage by the mass media.
Many organisations devise a “logo” which can be used in
all publicity material to serve as an attractive “badge
of identification” for their “product”. The Bollington
Festival Committee was very fortunate in having access
to a talented poster designer who also happens to be
the Methodist Minister of Bollington! One of his posters
contained a small feature depicting a man in silhouette, standing
beneath a billowing tree. The Festival Committee thought
that this would admirably represent the theme “Man
and Nature” and asked if they might adopt it as their official
logo. Permission was duly granted, and the motif subsequently
appeared on all major publicity material, including
the front cover of the Festival Brochure, promotional newspaper
articles, Festival souvenirs and even at the top right
hand corner of all the tickets – a most effective way
of providing both publicity and continuity for the Festival.
In Dr Coope’s experience, effective publicity depends
very much upon individual initiative and persistence,
and contacts with people who can exert influence
on your behalf (“It is often a case of ‘who you know’.”) you
must make yourself and your cause known to the Press
and local Radio, and this usually involves repeated
representations and petitions, even to the point of “making
a nuisance of yourself.” However, this approach must have
worked for Bollington, as there was not only generous coverage
of the Festival in the two local weekly newspapers
– the Macclesfield Express and the Macclesfield Advertiser,
together with an article in the “Community News”
(delivered free of charge to homes in Macclesfield, Bollington,
Prestbury and surrounding district), but also some
reference in the Manchester Evening News and a feature
on Radio Manchester, not to mention the interest shown by Granada
Television! The Bollington Festival Committee have
found that it is wise to cultivate good relations the Press
and to help them as much as possible by, for example,
composing one’s own press releases and submitting
copy, legibly written on standard size paper, to the required
source. This can then be transcribed as it stands,
and often is so, thus saving the time of newspaper staff
and ensuring accuracy of information! In return,
one can expect to enjoy the co-operation and helpfulness
of the Press and, in the case of Local Radio in particular,
once contact with a producer has been established,
any future approaches to the network can be made via this
individual who will already have personal knowledge
of your cause.
Establishing, and following up, contacts with Media
is really a full-time job and one which would probably
be eminently suitable, as Dr Coope observed, for
a recently retired person with the necessary time, enthusiasm
and energy – for much publicity work is unglamorous
and consists of visiting a host of public places
such as libraries, shops and pubs, armed with posters and
a persuasive smile! This was done most conscientiously
in Bollington, as I hope the accompanying photographs
show [unfortunately we don’t
have the photographs!].
about a month before the opening of the Festival,
bright yellow posters with black lettering began to appear
in shop windows, pubs and notice boards throughout
the district and car stickers in vivid orange conveyed
the news of the Festival to various parts of the
North West and, no doubt, much further afield! At the same
time, specially constructed signposts were erected.
Two of these, sited at strategic points on the A6
Stockport – Macclesfield road, were large, free-standing, multi-coloured
signs which could be seen clearly from a considerable
distance. Another sign (white lettering on a red
background) was affixed to the side of a house occupying a
prominent position in Bollington itself. In addition, smaller
signs, very clearly designed in white and yellow,
with black lettering, directed visitors from neighbouring
villages such as Pott Shrigley and Prestbury to the
Festival, and similar signs were used within the
Bollington boundaries to indicate key Festival areas such as
the Civic Hall, St John’s Church and the Festival Centre.
The role of the Library
Bollington Library played an important part in the
promotion of the Festival. In addition to selling Festival
Brochures, the library staff exhibited the various
designs of souvenir glassware which were to be on sale
during the Festival and mounted a poster-display of
some of the Festival attractions including the Art
Exhibition, “Acis and Galatea”, folk concerts and the
musical evening featuring celebrated harpist David
Watkins and his sister, Helen. The library also provided
enrolment forms for the series of four guided walks
round Bollington organised by Mr Roger Bowling, a keen
local historian, and entry forms for the “Best Window
Box Competition” organised by the Horticultural Society.
During the Festival Fortnight, the library houses an
impressive exhibition of craftwork and needlework
by the Bollington Cross and Lowerhouse W.I. and acted
as the headquarters for an Art Competition held on
the Bank Holiday Monday.
Macclesfield Library, also, devoted a considerable
amount of space to the display of Bollington Festival
posters and provided leaflets advertising the Festival
Cycle Race and the Late Film, presented at the Civic
Hall, on the first evening of the Festival, by Macclesfield
Film Club.
The Festival Brochure
The material for the Festival Brochure was written
by representatives of the various societies and
organisations involved in the Festival. The deadline for submission
to the Editor was December 1979, by which date
all details concerning the nature and timing of the fifty
or more activities planned for Festival Fortnight,
and the booking of professional artists, had to
be finalised – an indication of the enormity of the
task undertaken by the organisers. There were in the event,
one or two late entries for the Brochure and slight
problems were also encountered at the printing
stage, leading to delays in publication and distribution
to the various selling points.
On the whole, the Festival publicity was extremely well organised
and while there is probably everything to be gained in the future
by attempting to persuade newspapers with a wide regional readership,
such as the Manchester Evening News, to provide greater coverage
of events, the very large attendances during the Festival Fortnight
are evidence of the overall success of the publicity campaign.
Continue Kathryn's story ...
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