Launching during COVID-19

No doubt launching a festival during COVID-19 comes with some huge — even seemingly insurmountable — challenges. But far from giving up, it actually spurred me on to JUST DO IT. Here’s why:
1) we've been able to secure fantastic speakers and performers, who would otherwise have been booked solid during the usual summer festival season.
2) COVID-19 has forced us to rethink the usual festival business model and configure the format and delivery of content in order to make it virus-proof. Rather than just an event-driven business exclusively dependent on ticketing revenue from live events, our eyes are on the real prize: becoming a content and media brand.
3) with so few festivals ready to announce that they WILL definitely go ahead, it’s easier to create signal to noise ratio and seize the public imagination.

So far, my gut instincts have been validated and my overtures to practically everyone, speakers, performers, suppliers and regional businesses, have been welcomed. Some of them think that I’m crazy — but in that good, bloody-minded way that gives people hope that great things can come out of adversity.

Joanne