Festival Futures reveals final speakers and agenda

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has released a full conference agenda for its Festival Futures conferences in April.

As reported by IQ, Festival Futures, jointly hosted by AIF and music college group BIMM, was announced in the first week of February and will comprise two coordinated one-day conference events in Brighton and Manchester on 5 and 7 April, respectively.

Confirmed speakers for the Brighton event include Wilderness, Citadel and Eden Sessions promoter John Empson; Mark Davyd of the Music Venue Trust; Metal Culture’s Sean McLoughlin, the event director of Village Green festival; Production Services Association general manager Andy Lenthall, while unique to Manchester are Wild Rumpus director Sarah Bird, promoter, author and festival consultant Dr Roxy Robinson and safety advisor Mike Atkinson.

Topics for discussion will include the importance of multi-arts events and family content; the “food revolution” at festivals; connections between streaming platforms and ticketing; the importance of grassroots venues and connections to festivals; and what the impact of virtual reality and other new tech on the marketplace could be. Event safety, festival finance, drugs awareness and the politics of participation will also be on the agenda.

Conference schedules can be downloaded from here (Brighton) and here (Manchester).

Festival Futures will be open to both the music industry and the general public, with tickets priced at £50 for AIF members and £100 for non-members. There are a limited number of tickets left, which can be bought from ticketing partner Skiddle.