Open Air Business August/September 2018

EVENTS
CASE STUDY
The Contemporary
Craft Festival
No ordinary craft fair, this on-trend festival event in
Bovey Tracey, Devon, brings over £1m to the local
economy and is 250% oversubscribed for stall holders!
By applying best practice in financing, volunteer management, community engagement
and festival trends, this west country craft festival is rivalling major London events. We
talk to founder Sarah James about how she has grown her award winning Contemporary
Craft Festival to attract over 10,000 people a year.
Describe your event and how
many people it attracts
We organise high-end craft
events. Our largest event, The
Contemporary Craft Festival,
attracts over 10,000 visitors to
the small town of Bovey Tracey
in Devon. We also run events in
Cardiff and Cheltenham. The
festival represents 200 of the UK’s
finest contemporary craft makers
selling directly to the public. We are
currently Festival of the Year and
the winner of Winners at South West
Tourism Awards 2018. We have also
won Festival of the Year for Visit
Devon three times.
Explain a bit about your venue
and its history
The Contemporary Craft Festival is
held in beautiful Mill Marsh Park in
the centre of Bovey Tracey on the
edge of Dartmoor in Devon.
What is the event’s history and
what made you decide to run it?
The Contemporary Craft Festival
came about in 2003 when three
Bovey Tracey craft businesses
joined forces and formed a nonprofit
making company with the
aim to bring a large craft fair to the
area. For the first three years, the
fair was supported by European
LEADER funding and aimed to
showcase the very best in British
craft, create a new, sustainable
and strong marketplace for
contemporary craft and bring
greater prosperity to the town.
Bovey Tracey has a long history of
making and at one point up to 15
commercial potteries were running
in the area. I was initially appointed
as the project manager in 2003
and made a company director in
2004. I have a degree in ceramics,
was a former potter and am very
passionate about contemporary
craft. I wanted to create an event
that could combine my intense
interest in craft and, as a mother of
two very young children, an event
that welcomed families too. I was
told that the combination wouldn’t
work…
Since the event was founded, a
variety of craft based businesses
have flourished in the town,
strengthened by the year round
presence of the Devon Guild of
Craftsmen, which is also based
here. The three day event generates
over £1million for the local
economy.
WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM 65