March/April 2021

EVENTS
What Towersey Did…
In 2020, the 57 year old Towersey Festival raised over £46,000 to keep itself afloat
while maintaining audience engagement and income for artists. Now it’s planning
how best to tackle the unknowns of 2021
BACK IN March 2020, when the
world got flipped on its axis,
Towersey Festival was one of the
very first events to cancel its live
festival and move online for the
year.
“We felt we had to be
proactive and take our audience
with us on a digital journey
through the year,” said festival
director Joe Heap. “It was vital
for us, for our audience and for
the artists to have something
to hold on to and to keep the
unique Towersey spirit alive.”
It wasn’t long before many
others followed suit of course.
Without any income for the
foreseeable future, Towersey
took the plunge and began
a very active Crowdfunder
campaign based around real
rewards for exclusive festival
goodies and access packages.
Their audience embraced
it and were rewarded with a
year-round programme of online
activity that featured ‘at-home’
festival weekends including over
24 interactive workshops, three
kitchen Ceilidhs (barn dances)
and 15 gigs, with over 40 artists
taking part.
Towersey Festival’s online
programme has now had over
10,000 streams and all the
content is still available to enjoy
for free from the festival website.
The Crowdfunder has had over
1,000 supporters and raised
£46,000, enough money to keep
the festival alive and pay artists
and freelancers for their work.
“I want to thank our incredible
audience, amazing artists and
contributors and our team who
supported and led this huge
effort,” says Joe. “Towersey has
always been ground-breaking in
the way we approach our event,
and this move to creative digital
events has been no different.”
A ‘PINT SIZED’ TOWERSEY
The festival is now focusing
on what the future might
look like. Unlike many bigger
events, the Towersey approach
is “cautiously optimistic”
according to Joe. Plans are in
place for a smaller scale “pint
sized” Towersey which it is
hoped can go ahead, although
much will depend on the success
of the government’s Covid
roadmap.
“We are planning for a
number of different scenarios for
the 2021 festival depending on
how the year pans out and we
have some really robust socially
distanced, reduced capacity
plans in place if needed. Our
smaller event is based on
rules as they stand now with
social distancing measures but
hopefully this can be relaxed
in the months to come. We
also plan to stream from the
mainstage so those at home can
watch.”
Fallback plans include
another completely digital event
with some large scale streaming
as well as lots of workshops and
interactive content.
“There’s still so much up in
the air for larger scale events but
we feel like we have all bases
covered.”
The festival has been lucky
enough to have recently received
funding via the government’s
Culture Recovery Fund. “This
vital support will mean we
are here for our audiences,
community and artists as soon
as it is safe to return and be
#HereForCulture,” says Joe.
“Thank you to Arts Council
England and to the government
for recognising the importance
of our great festival and so
many other vital cultural
organisations who have been
unable to operate for 13 months
now. Thanks also to all of our
wonderful customers and team
for their continued support
through 2020 and into 2021. We
are not out of the woods yet, but
we are certainly in a better place
than we were.”
ABOUT TOWERSEY FESTIVAL
Towersey Festival is a 57 year old
event celebrating everything a
family festival should be. Now
in the hands of third generation
family member Joe Heap,
Towersey has grown from a few
music fans in his grandad’s back
garden to an 8,000 attendee
event now held at the Claydon
Estate, Buckinghamshire,
over the August bank holiday
weekend.
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