Organising a live music event is hard work. It’s time consuming, exhausting, frustrating, and sometimes just plain scary. But when you get it right and the crowds come and everyone has a brilliant time, it is one of the most satisfying things you can do, which is why some crazy people keep going back for more, says pro audio industry veteran Sue Sillitoe, who recently played a central role in organising this year’s Tetfest…
I am one of those crazy people. I didn’t intend to be – I became one by accident when I got involved with Tetfest, an annual one-day music festival that takes place every July in Tetbury, the Cotswold town where I live. Back in 2018 I spotted a Facebook post asking if anyone was interested in resurrecting Tetbury Fiesta, a music event that had fallen by the wayside a couple of years earlier. It was cold, it was January, I was bored, and I thought why not? I’ve worked in the music and pro audio industries all my adult life, both as a journalist and a PR director, so I figured I could bring some useful skills and contacts to the table.
That initial meeting was held in a local pub and about 20 people turned up. It was hosted by Malcolm Philby, who runs Tetbury’s hardware shop, and excavator operator Mark Wood, a man who’s not afraid to speak his mind (especially after a few pints!). Within days it became apparent that most of those who had attended were not really interested and only a handful of us were willing to get involved. We formed a working committee of six, changed the event’s name to Tetfest and set out to see what we could achieve.
The Initial Plan and How To Fund It?
From the start we wanted the event to be for the local community - family friendly, inclusive and with music that covered a wide variety of genres so there was something for everyone to enjoy. We also wanted children’s entertainment – bouncy castles, face painting and so on – and we wanted these to be free. Ideally, we wanted the whole festival to be free, and for the last five years we’ve achieved that. This mattered because we are all about inclusivity and giving families a great day out, especially those on low incomes.
The trouble is, even the smallest event costs money to stage and while our volunteer committee was prepared to work for nothing, we were still going to have overheads and we had to figure out how to cover them.
Those early discussions set the template for how we have funded Tetfest to date. We decided that sponsorship from local businesses was the way forward, so we chivvied everyone we could think of for a few quid here and a few hundred there. We also approached our town and county councils for grant funding, which we occasionally got, and asked for money from local charity groups such as the Tetbury Lions and the Feoffees of Tetbury. Other income has come from pre-agreed percentages of the bar and food stall takes and, as organisers, we’ve also put our hands in our own pockets on occasions when money has been particularly tight.
It's satisfying to see how generous people can be. We’ve benefited from a lot of good will, and from the negotiation skills of our undisputed leader, Mark Wood, who has secured excellent deals for all kinds of things. We’ve also blagged a few freebies – anything to keep the costs down. A good example is our TETFEST letters – a new addition to this year’s festival. The ply was donated by a local building supplier, cut into shape by a local carpentry firm and decorated by the community including kids from the Scouts, Cubs, playgroup, primary and secondary schools using paint donated by a local paint shop.
This funding model has served us well to date, but we have now reached the stage where we’ve outgrown it. Tetfest has increased in size each year – this year we attracted nearly 2,000 people - and the costs have increased accordingly, up from £4,000 when we first started to £20,000 this year. A recession, rising costs and the fact that businesses are feeling the pinch and are less inclined to sponsor has created a perfect storm, so next year we will be charging a small entrance fee to help cover these costs.
Turning Fields Into A Festival
Finding a venue for a music festival is tricky. You can’t be too close to residential areas or people moan about the noise and you don’t want to be too far out of town because people don’t like to drive if they want to drink. In the countryside no one hears you scream...for a bus…. because there are none. Well, there are, but not many and not very frequently, so public transport isn’t an option either.
We persuaded our local secondary school to lend us its playing fields for the first Tetfest in 2018 as it just about fitted the criteria. We had a license for 500 and about 300 turned up. It was start, if a somewhat chaotic one. On the morning of Tetfest we realised we had no signs directing people from the centre of town to the festival site, so we made them ourselves with cardboard and marker pens. Thankfully, it didn’t rain, or they wouldn’t have lasted long!
The following year, landowner Geoff Turbott came to our rescue. Unlike many farmers he was willing to let us use his land at Worwell Farm on the edge of town, provided we picked up every bit of litter, right down to the last cigarette butt, so that it was returned in a safe state for his sheep. This fantastic location is still Tetfest’s home and is perfect because it is big enough for our event and parking if people want it. The only downside is not having electricity or running water, so we bring in generators to power the lights, sound equipment and fridges and we make sure there is plenty of bottled water on site, especially when it’s hot. We also bring in portaloos, skips for rubbish, a stage that we rent from The Royal Oak pub and various marquees that we use for the bar and the green room. The whole area is enclosed by a fence, which goes down well with parents because once inside their kids are entirely safe to run around.
Naturally, Tetfest has a bar – it wouldn’t be a festival without one - but we don’t run it ourselves because no one on the committee has a license. Instead, we subcontract it to other people, for example Tetbury Rugby Club, which has run it for the last two years. We also curate our food stalls very carefully so that there is plenty of choice. This year we had seven of them, not to mention ice cream man Dave, who always does a roaring trade.
Getting the site ready for Tetfest and returning it to Geoff in pristine condition is hard work. There are now seven of us on the committee and our various day jobs include working in shops, restaurants and estate agents, being a school governor, running a PR company, working in advertising, running a web and graphic design agency and operating an excavator. Two of our committee members sit on the town council and one of them is a former Tetbury Major. No one is exempt from the hard work – we do it all, with occasional help from family and friends when we can persuade them to join in. Set up day is Friday. We are usually on site from 8am and finished around 7pm. We have fences, a stage and marquees to put up, bars to build, portaloos and rubbish skips to take delivery of and drag into the right place, signage, barriers and car parks to sort out, a sound system to set up and a million other things on our To Do list. Mark and his wife Kim (who is also on our committee) move their camper van onto the site the night before Tetfest so they can keep an eye on everything.
On Saturday we run around like headless sheep for a few hours, making sure everything is ready for gates opening at noon. The food stalls and people running the bar come in early, as does security, the first aiders and the people providing kids’ entertainment which this year included fairground rides and stalls, a climbing wall and three bouncy castles. Once the gates open, we are flat out for the rest of the day scanning tickets, attaching wristbands, cleaning and re-stocking the loos with toilet paper, organising any volunteers we’ve managed to sign up, sorting out the car park, dealing with any issues security or the stall holders have, looking after our artists and, of course, looking after our guests so that everyone has a good time. If we get to eat, drink or watch more than a couple of bands we think we’ve done well!
There is no rest for the wicked. On Sunday we are back on site at 9am to dismantle everything and pick up all the litter. By Sunday evening we are usually so exhausted we can barely move!
Since that first meeting in 2018 we’ve learned an incredible amount covering all sort of stuff like applying for grants and council licenses, dealing with Health & Safety regulations, and even knowing what to do in the unlikely event of a terrorist attack. Our committee already had a broad skill base, which is just as well because at least we already knew how to do things like designing a website, running our social media, generating publicity, dealing with accounts and invoices and negotiating deals and sponsorships. The list is endless.
