Cultural Participation: A Connection Between Audiences, Performers, and Professionals

Live @ Koekendorp – © Gertjan Zevenbergen

Through culture we are able to express ourselves, and connect with like-minded individuals. However, many cultural experiences are celebrated through performances for which a boundary between performer and audience member is considered natural. Here, we’d like to highlight some independent, as well as co-dependent, cultural companies that have created shows and ways that breach those boundaries.

Building Communities

Collaborations between the creative and performing arts and their local communities drive engagement, for audiences feel like they have a say and get to experience something they have played their part in. Cumbria-based music festival Solfest showed how well they have been able to engage their community. When they weathered heavy storms just last summer and had to cancel the first day of their festival, parts of their community showed up a day early to help by rebuilding tents and securing equipment. And it isn’t the first time their local community offered their support, they previously offered free goods and services, and helped promote the festival to show their support. By engaging their community and showing their appreciation to those that show up to support the festival, Solfest engaged a group of people they would otherwise not reach, such as neighbours and local farmers that would otherwise not attend an 8.000-capacity alternative music festival.

Festivals such as Primavera Sound in Barcelona, and UK-based radio stations such as Radio X, as well as grassroots musicians have started creating online communities via platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to connect with their fans and include them in decisions to be made on their future plans. Artists such as Sam Fender, who used to attend local live events, Tom Grennan, who regularly interacts with fans online, and The Lottery Winners, who launched a physical merchandise store they would at times attend, have grown loyal fan bases that will jump on every new merch item, sell out tours, and arenas. Aside from the fact that these personal actions fight the algorithms, it also gives their fan base and community a feeling of belonging and being a part of an event online or in person. Through creating online groups and communities, they connect their fans with each other, making their live events a social event where their fans get to meet like-minded people and help them get out of their comfort zone.

King Goon performing at The Bunkhouse, Swansea at the event celebrating our purchase of the venue – © Lloyd Stranaghan (@stay.focused.photography)

Integrating Audiences

Festivals, such as TRUCK, Y Not, and Sheffield’s Tramlines open votes for slots at the festival, which gives the public the chance to choose who they’ll be able to see perform when they purchase a ticket for those festivals. A similar initiative to engage communities is Amazing Radio’s Audition Show, which gives people the chance to vote for their favourite single to be added onto the Amazing Radio rotation. These actions result in higher ticket sales, as well as a higher listener count, when audiences experience that their vote makes a difference. A similar experience comes from crowdfunding platforms, Newcastle music venue Little Buildings created a crowdfunder for new equipment and in return rewarded those that support the crowdfunder with a small physical plaque with their name on at the venue. These timeless rewards create a sense of pride for the local community and its achievements.

Co-Ownership

One step further is Music Venue Trust #OWNOURVENUES scheme, a ground-breaking initiative that allows anyone to purchase shares in grassroots music venues that would without their community’s support not survive. The Music Venue Trust is a charity that aims to protect, secure, and improve the grassroots music venues in the UK, and although most of their work is focused on these venues supporting itself and receiving the support they deserve, they have opened the floor to audiences and communities to become a part of the incredibly important part of the music industry that happens before an artist enters the stage at a sold-out show.

The Snug in Atherton, The Ferret in Preston, The Bunkhouse in Swansea, The Booking Hall in Dover, and Le Pub in Newport are now all five community-owned since the first purchase that was made by Music Venue Trust and its community in October 2023. These wins don’t solely benefit the venues that are now community-owned, but also its communities. In a report that was published in 2015 on engaging communities in the arts in Doncaster it is demonstrated that communities are more willing to become engaged when it is adamant that their input matters. This might seem like a lifetime ago, but the observations that were made haven’t changed, as the report also mentions that it takes time to build relationships with local communities, and gain their trust. This is something Arts Council England has been working on for the past few decades.

The Snug - LtoR Claire Mera-Nelson (Arts Council England), Rachael Flaszczak (Manager, The Snug), John Whittingdale MP, Mark Davyd (CEO Music Venue Trust) at the event celebrating the community's purchase of the Snug – © @trust_a_fox

Giving Insights

A fundamental element communities most often lack is an understanding of the creative and performing arts sector, as they don’t often see the work that goes on behind the stage ahead of a show’s start. Arts Council England aims to allow access to the backstage by delivering funding programmes, development activities, and practical toolkits for those interested in peeking behind the curtain. In 2012, they launched the Creative People and Places programme, “focusing on parts of the country where engagement in creativity and culture was significantly below the national average.” In 2022, they launched the Place Based Peer Learning Programme, which provided opportunities to build networks, collaborate, and exchange knowledge, and this year they aim to launch the Creative Ageing Peer Learning Programme, “designed to support those delivering arts and culture projects by, for and with older people”. These programmes, that break gender-, age-, and race-barriers, connect members of the community with their creative arts industry, which in turn delivers on stronger relationships within the community, empowerment of individuals, creative problem-solving, and driving social change. Organisations such as The Hawth Theatre in Crawley, Beamish Museum in the north east, the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, and Tonic Music for Mental Health took part in the Creative People and Places programme. Tonic Music for Mental Health provides accessible programmes of mental health support tailored to the music industry, music fans, and music youth. By including fans Tonic Music shows the fans’ significance, and the importance of not overlooking them as part of the music industry.

Nourishing the Community

European funding bodies such as Popunie have supported community-driven festivals such as Dutch event Live@Koekendorp that started out as private gatherings but have turned into public events the area can no longer do without. Kunstbende is a non-profit organisation offering a stage to young creative talent from all over the Netherlands to compete with categories such as Content Creator, Dance, DJ, Expo, Fashion, Film, Music, Language, and Theatre. Kunstbende’s audience engages with participating shows and exhibitions and vote for who they think is best. Ahead of their big event, the organisation sets up interactive workshops and open events for the community to interact with professionals within their industry and category of choice which allows a peek behind the curtain of what it could mean for participants and the community to be successful within their chosen field. Freely accessible Dutch traveling music festival Popronde has been establishing their brand and gaining the trust of national music fans by curating high quality line-ups and booking them at unusual spaces such as hairdressers, lamp shops, and cafes. By hosting free events in public shops and spaces, they reach an entirely different demographic they would otherwise not reach, engaging a new community and broadening live music audiences.

Live @ Koekendorp – © Gertjan Zevenbergen