I first met photographer Loz Scott at an Oxjam Brighton event I was organising. He was interested in doing something for Oxjam, so our team put him on the Gig Maker route – where an individual puts on a single Oxjam event. Little did I know that, a few weeks later, he would persuade me to work on Worthing Oxjam Festival to create an event in the style of an Oxjam Takeover – where a team of people put on a one-day, multi-venue music event.
Late in August 2014, Loz and I met for a coffee and agreed that we would work together. Whilst he had organised an event before, he had never done anything on the scale of an Oxjam Takeover and needed my skills, knowledge and experience across all areas of the project. That very day, we pounded the streets of Worthing and, within a few hours, had persuaded four venues to agree to host stages for our festival. Within a few days, I had also contacted the owners of a fifth venue, who agreed to come on board.
I quickly created a basic poster and an event on the Oxjam Sussex Fundraisers Facebook page to give the festival an immediate online presence.
Loz was in contact with lots of bands, a DJ and a photographer, so it made sense for him to focus on Production, although I handled the administrative side for him. We had been told about Schizophonic Events & Promotions as a company that might support us with equipment, so Loz met with the Managing Director, Corianda, who agreed to help by providing equipment and sourcing acts through her local contacts within the Worthing music scene. She joined the team as Production Coordinator, working alongside Loz.
My role was threefold: I took on Marketing Coordination, Fundraising Coordination and Volunteer Coordination. I started by drafting a project plan. Time was tight, with only eight weeks to plan rather than the six months usually allocated for a project of this nature, so I knew I had to remain very focused. Even with this short timeframe, I still set my milestones a week ahead of the final deadline to allow for any slippage against our targets.
Marketing and fundraising had to be planned side by side. I worked with our first sponsor, Above Media, to create a logo for the event and discuss ideas for promotional materials, before setting about gathering the information needed for those materials. This included sponsors and performers. I gave Loz and Corianda a deadline for finalising the stages so that the artwork could be completed with plenty of time for the promotional materials to be printed, while I concentrated on contacting potential sponsors.
I drew up a sponsorship proposal document and compiled a list of potential sponsors who would either be able to provide us with the goods and services we needed or whose brand would complement the Oxjam Music Festival brand.
The first thought I had when I started the project was that I wanted Northbrook College to be our main sponsor. They have a large music department with students studying music craft, music production, music business management and many other related subjects, so their brand was a perfect fit with Oxjam. I approached the Head of Music, who invited me to the department’s fortnightly meeting to speak with her team, and they agreed to become our main sponsor.
I knew I was working to the same deadline I had given the Production team, so I spent several weeks sitting at my desk, cold-calling different companies, including printers, sign manufacturers, music-related businesses, breweries, vineyards and ethical trading companies, in every spare minute I had. By the time we reached the deadline, I had secured sponsors who agreed to provide everything we needed free of charge.
The next item on the agenda was getting technical specifications for the performers over to the Northbrook team, who would be coordinating the sound for the event. As Loz was not used to working with computers and documents, I took on this responsibility for him. I liaised with all the performers to obtain their technical requirements so that, when they arrived to perform, everything they needed was ready for them.
At the outset of the project, one of the first things I did was advertise on various job sites for volunteers. Applications came in steadily whilst I was securing sponsors and preparing the marketing materials, so I sent each volunteer a brief holding email until I was able to contact them personally to discuss their experience and the requirements of the role.
I used CVs to determine which candidates would be best suited to Crew Chief positions and met with this group before assigning the remaining volunteers to their individual teams. As we moved closer to the event and more applications came in, I allocated people to the different teams across the various venues. There was no time to arrange a meeting before the festival, so I introduced the team members and Crew Chiefs electronically before holding a volunteer briefing on the morning of the event.
To ensure the festival ran smoothly, I prepared information packs for each venue containing contact details for all the relevant people, including performers, organisers and venue staff. The packs also included technical specifications for every act, along with information about Oxjam and Oxfam for the teams to refer to and display at their venues, helping to spread the Oxfam message and raise awareness of both charities.
No project runs without a hitch, but the important thing is being able to resolve problems quickly as they arise. For example, when one of the Crew Chiefs was called away part-way through the day, I merged the wristband team with the team at the venue where the wristband exchange was located. This was a contingency I had already built into the project plan should it become necessary.
On one of the stages, there were last-minute issues with the backline and, although this would normally have fallen to the Production Coordinator, I stepped in to resolve them. I sourced a drum kit from a contact I had made during the planning stages and obtained a drum stool and mat from the Northbrook team, with whom I had been working closely throughout the project.
Throughout the day, I regularly visited each of the venues to ensure everything was running smoothly, collect money and catch up with the volunteers. Everyone had my phone number, so if they needed anything, such as extra wristbands, they called me and I responded immediately.
Our total venue capacity was 700, so at the outset I set a target of attracting at least 200 people through the doors. By the end of the day, we had sold 225 tickets and had also provided 20 complimentary tickets to our sponsors.
There was one unavoidable expense of £20 to pay for contract cleaners at one of the venues, but apart from that, every penny raised went to Oxfam, totalling **£1,383.48**.