BAREFEET FESTIVAL, ZAMBIA
ACROSS ZAMBIA
For ten years I was the Director of the annual Barefeet festival. In this capacity I was responsible for leading a team charged with creating and implementing the vision, design and programme for each festival.
This involved overseeing a 12 day national festival which had a reach of over 40,000 people. The festival was a mixture of dance, music, film, theatre, workshops, literature, discussion, carnival and community awareness events.
The festival started in 2006 as a modest event to create a platform for over 700 children living on the streets of Zambia and grew to include over 2500 young people, 75 international artists with headliners like FreshlyGround and Femi Kuti and the Positive Vibe.
Festival supporters included UNICEF, Irish Aid, the EU, the Zambian Government and several major corporate partners. Check out www.barefeettheatre.org for news on this years festival
SPAREPARTS FESTIVAL
North West England
In April 2016 I was appointed Festival Director for SpareParts Festival, the UK’s only Festival of Art,
Performance and Spectacle dedicated to transport and travel.
From 1 festival in 2016 I grew the festival to 3 in 2017 and in 2018 a £1.3M 3 year strategic touring bid for 5 festivals. In this role I was responsible for all programming for the festival which travels to 5 locations in North West England. Additionally I was responsible for all Project Management, marketing and communications, administration, finance, fundraising, strategy and partnership building.
I was supported by LeftCoast Blackpool, ACE and Fleetwood Festival of Transport (Ffot).
CONTACTING THE WORLD
Contact Theatre Manchester
Since 2002 Contact has hosted Contacting The World, a biannual international project which brings together young people from around the world to create new theatre. Twinning companies so they can collaborate, exchange members and share ideas Contacting The World culminates in a Festival Week in July.
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Contacting The World has featured companies from Malaysia, Trinidad, Nigeria, Rwanda, Palestine, Brazil, Poland, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Jordan, Bangladesh, Syria, Iran, South Africa, New Zealand, The Philippines, Nepal, Zambia, Germany, Turkey, the UK and USA.
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As one of two artist facilitators, I was responsible for curating the artistic collaborations of 3 sets of ‘twins’. This involved setting a creative arc through monthly challenges aimed at provoking and inspiring theatrical responses leading to new work that could not have been created without the contributions from the ‘twin’. As well as nurturing the creative journey’s I travelled to work with the companies in their home countries of Iran, US, Denmark, Jamaica, Switzerland and the UK.
From 2012 I consulted and supported on the creative delivery of an exchange programme between innovative theatre companies including Nigeria, UK, Thailand, USA, Trinidad and Tobago. The international Festival takes place biannually over 9-14 days in Manchester.