The Lit Fest newsletter
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been intrigued to see the different ways people are organising their online events. Hay on Wye, who recently announced a bumper 80 event ‘digital edition’ are using Crowdcast as their platform. To gain access to the event you have to register first and numbers are capped - although the cap is quite high. For the Stephen Fry event on the first night there are over 3,800 spots left. Crowdcast charge companies based on the number of people that attend. Charleston, who have ten days of events planned, have taken a very different approach - streaming via their YouTube channel. There is clearly a trade off between ease of access and data collection - is it worth adding an extra barrier to entry (i.e. registration) in order to collect email addresses? Hay clearly feels it is.
What they both have in common is a belief that charging for the events would have been a step too far. This assumption that people will not pay for virtual events has been widespread even though there is an established model of charging that is one small step away from lit festivals. Organisations like the Idler Academy and the School of Life have been selling online courses and virtual classes for a number of years. The Idler is currently offering, among others, A Brief Introduction to Anarchism by their head honcho Tom Hodgkinson for £42. The course consists of three illustrated talks totalling 45 minutes plus ‘transcripts, forums, further reading, a quiz and certificate’.
Meanwhile, over at the School of Life, £55 will gain you access to a two hour virtual class with subjects ranging from How to Fail to How to Make Love Last.
This content is very similar to what you would get from a literary festival, it is just packaged in an ‘educational’ format as a course or class. These are well established businesses who understand how much people are willing to pay.
So, are we are collectively underselling ourselves?
While some festivals like Wigtown are encouraging people to make a donation, there are a few people now starting to charge. Damian Barr’s wonderful Literary Salon is holding an event tonight priced £5 with the author Garth Greenwell. I also noticed my friend David Bramwell had started selling tickets for his events (in his usual imaginative style) so I thought it worth asking him what he had learnt so far…
What events do you normally organise? A monthly spoken word night in Brighton and Lewes for the last 15 years. Three guest speakers from all walks of life, on topics that are close to their hearts. I also promote spoken word events during Brighton Fringe every May, with higher profile guests.
How many online events have you run this lockdown or have planned? Three so far, with another six planned.
How did you let people know these events were happening? Social media, mailing lists and asking guests to promote them too. Facebook advertising.
How have you charged for these events? Ticket sales are monitored closely. I charge £6 for regular ticket, £8 for front seat. £3 restricted view and £0 for those who can’t afford to pay. It’s an honesty system that works. Most sales are for £6 with about 15-20% free. People started telling me they were buying two tickets if in a couple. As my Zoom membership is restricted to 100 participants I realised this was preventing maximum sales/viewers so I created a family ticket for £12 which have also been popular.
What have you learned about organising things this way? What has worked? What hasn’t? It’s worth rehearsing with Zoom (if that’s what you’re using) and getting to know all of its features. It’s also worth sharing what you know with an audience at the start of each event. Talk them through how to use to the Gallery View/ Speaker view and what the various functions do. It will enhance their experience of the event.
Always have the audience muted, except for clapping at the end of a talk. Otherwise you get audio feedback and echoes and it can be disconcerting for speakers. Ensure you have control of their mics!
For my Catalyst Club I can now call upon folk from around the world to be guest speakers, which wasn’t possible before. So I’m trying to make that a feature of the night now. We have an actor from LA as guest for the next event. It’s a good time to ask people who are normally too busy such as authors, comedians, actors etc.
Internet connection is an issue. Ask participants to turn off any device in the house that’s using internet and ensure any kids in the house are instructed to stay offline on pain of death during your event.
A concern for the future of my events is Zoom fatigue and warm weather. Will we want to be watching events online when the sun is shining and we can sit in the park or garden with a bifter and a can of Old Scrote? How many of us are spending our days staring at a screen? Now we can meet friends in the park at a safe distance isn’t this going to be preferable to yet more screen time? Time will tell on this one.
Festival of the Week - the Big Book Weekend
A hearty virtual round of applause is deserved for everyone involved (including founders Kit de Waal, Molly Flatt and MYVLF) in putting together this fantastic event that brought together so many festivals at such short notice. It would be great if this kind of cooperation was something that continued beyond lockdown.
The festivals involved were…
Thank you for reading!
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