Kirklees Music Festival Leaders come together

Dedicated music festival leaders from the district have come together to form a voluntary ‘super group’ that will – for the first time ever – team up on ways to further put creativity and musical experiences on the map for the district and help turn Kirklees into a world class venue for creativity, music and arts.

As part of Kirklees Council’s Creative Economy Team’s bid to transform the district into a globally-recognised world class venue for creativity and the arts and to be recognised as a music centre of excellence, a range of festival organisers covering a range of genres from reggae to jazz and folk to RnB, have been invited to share knowledge about their experiences of running a festival for thousands of visitors.

Coming together before the festive break at Queensgate Market for their first ever meeting together, so far the group includes Love 4 All, Huddersfield Carnival, Shepley Spring Festival, Marsden Jazz Festival, Cleckheaton Folk Festival, Conscious Youth, The Parish, the University of Huddersfield Students' Union, the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with more set to join.

They discussed how, as a team, they could enhance the profiles of their events even further by coming together as a team to help with any relevant fundraising bids, buying and selling equipment and raising brand awareness.

Kath Davies, economic resilience project manager for Kirklees Council’s Creative Economy team, said: “This is something truly unique for the district of Kirklees. To have so many strong personalities from the area come together and voluntarily help one another to put on amazing festivals is absolutely fantastic for Kirklees.

“There’s so much to shout about in the district in terms of the creativity and fantastic talents we have, and this is all leading up to 2023 plans to really make Kirklees a ‘word-class’ venue for music and the arts.”

Kirklees is set to stage another incredible calendar of musical events across 2019 which includes the Grand Northern Ukulele Festival in May to July’s Cleckheaton Folk Festival and Marsden Jazz Festival in October.

Mr Odudu, spokesperson for the group, said: “There’s an excellent opportunity for promoters of all kinds of events to come together and learn from each other and to create a better environment for our customers. It’s a win-win for us all.
“If we can get it to a point where we’re highlighting all of the different festivals and genres into one package, then it elevates what Kirklees has to offer on a greater scale.”

The group will next meet in April, with quarterly catch-ups arranged in a bid to rubberstamp ideas.