2024 will be the 50th Anniversary of Girvan Festival and we hope to reach that milestone on the crest of a wave.
Although the committee has started working towards our festival in 2018, we have one eye on the longer-term future. 2024 will be the 50th Anniversary of Girvan Festival and we hope to reach that milestone on the crest of a wave. Our assumption is that none (or few) of the present organisers will be in place beyond the 50th Festival – although there might be a continuing role as mentors – so we now have just a few short years to address issues of how best to pass the torch on to younger generations.
Few will disagree that the folk scene is maturing gracefully and the ‘ageing issue’ is one that most folk festivals are facing. We have to believe, and do believe, that solutions are there to be found. The Girvan committee is of the opinion that the Festival has the ability to continue to appeal to its core audience; the ability to reinvent itself to a newer audience; and the capability of re-engaging with some of its former audiences, including those from further afield.
A lot of work has been done in the background. We have plans or the coming months which we hope you will be enthused by, and a more strategic plan, which could be summarised as:
- A two-year period of careful, considered consolidation – focussing on our core current audience and on re-establishing links with audience sectors which for whatever reasons have lost the habit of attending.
Followed by:
- A five-year period, leading up to the 50th Festival during which major issues of succession will need to be addressed.
To keep in touch with progress, we encourage you to subscribe to the email News Feed on this website. Those of you who have already joined the mailing list on this site, will have already received this ‘news story’ by email. You won’t be flooded by messages. If the site has a story added, you will get an email. If nothing has been added – no email. As the Meercats say – Simples!
P.S. The festival dates for 2018 are May 4, 5 and 6, 2018. We hope that you have them in your diary.