Festival Focus returns for a third year, providing the opportunity to attend a variety of UK festivals as part of a cohort of other outdoor arts professionals.
A space to see work, learn together and take time to reflect on your own practice.
We offer ‘Bursary’ places to attend or you can apply for a ‘Pay your Own’ place.
Each Festival Focus is tailored around a theme that relates to each festival.
Festival Focus is our programme of professional development curated visits to outdoor arts festivals. Accompanied by members of the OAUK team, each event has a particular focus and is an opportunity to learn more about each festival’s aims and objectives, understand practical issues, meet producers and artists, ask questions – as well as see a lot of work. Each cohort is chosen to be a group with complementary skills and experiences so you can learn from each other; you will have time with OAUK to consider your own work and ambitions.
What…
You’ll attend a UK festival for a couple of days alongside the OAUK team and we will aim to give you the opportunity to meet the festival organisers and some of the artists, as well as some individual development time with OAUK. You’ll see shows and share your responses to them with the cohort; for some cohort members, this may be one of the few times they can engage with a festival without working.
Who’s it for…
You might be a relative newcomer to the outdoor sector or looking to expand your festival knowledge and experience. Perhaps you’re already experienced in the outdoor sector and looking to work in a different area or reach out to new contacts. You might be part of an organisation or working as an individual; you could be a producer, an artist, a programmer, a technician or a maker. We will balance the levels of outdoor experience as best as possible and usually include a mixture of OAUK members and non-members.
What we will provide…
OAUK will lead each Festival Focus and include various professional development events as well as guidance and feedback as part of the experience. Each schedule is different, but we usually aim to have a session with someone from the festival team and with an artist or company appearing at the festival; where time allows, we try and spend some 1-2-1 time with each member of the cohort or work in smaller groups.
Bursary Places
Successful bursary candidates will receive a contribution towards travel and subsistence, depending on the length of the visit; OAUK will also pay for and book accommodation. We keep each group small for practical reasons (if you want to come with a partner, we can only provide a single bursary, but please feel free to us about how that might work). Where necessary we provide tickets to some events and usually provide a group dinner.
‘Pay your Own’ Places
‘Pay your Own’ places will take part in all the cohort events, but be responsible for paying for and booking their own travel, accommodation and subsistence. Schedule permitting, we will usually pay for a group dinner and any tickets that are needed. These places are for those with access to training or professional development budgets and allow us to offer places to more people.
APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED, BUT LET US KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND ON A ‘PAY YOUR OWN’ BASIS
