Wovenfest
A first draft of this page! I'm sure I'll be tweaking it again and adding stuff, but this'll give you some idea of the plan.
What is Wovenfest?
It's a tiny festival of music, books, ideas etc. It's a "gig that's a bit special". It's lots of strands woven together. It's a bit hard to describe, because I've never been to anything quite the same as it...
The main ingredients are songs from Single Bass, books to browse, ideas to ponder, things to try, and a lovely venue with a garden. It'll start in the early afternoon, and the last SB set will be timed around 7ish 8ish, with travel and bedtimes in mind. The music will be indoors, so picnics in the garden are an optional extra. It'll be all-ages-friendly, and the main areas of the venue are wheelchair accessible.
People will be able to bring in their own food - but not alcohol, on this occasion. I might have considered inventing that rule, but in fact it's one of the rules of the venue anyway. Anyone whose summer day out isn't complete without a beer can be advised on the best nearby pubs :-)
When and where?
Saturday 9 June 2012, at the Friends' Meeting House in Nottingham, England. It's within a mile of all the main Nottingham transport intersections and close to a tram stop.
Most Nottingham-ites probably know the area, if not the building: it's that Trent University-ish area to the west of the Victoria Centre.
The Women's Centre is round the corner. Other useful nearby-ish landmarks are Rock City and the Rescue Rooms - the venue's north-west of those, perhaps 600 yards or so from the Vicky Centre.
Getting there
Here's the venue's own "Getting There" page.
Here's a Council page showing all the car parks, and the relevant bit of the tram route. You can download a PDF of the map. The Friends' Meeting House is shown as number 58 on the map, in square E3, just below the crown logo of what they call the "Royal Zone".
If you're coming for the whole afternoon by car, for most people it'll be cheapest to use one of the Park and Ride options.
I'm investigating the possibility of borrowing a small amount of privately-owned parking in the area, primarily to allocate to people who have mobility difficulties but no Blue Badge. That's not confirmed yet and may not happen, but please get in touch if you'd want one of those spaces if it does.
There is on-street parking. Clarendon Street is in Zone 1, so you're limited to 2 hours until 6pm. After 6pm you can stay till late for £1.
The on-street parking is free to Blue Badge holders, and I think the two-hour limit doesn't apply either, though Blue Badge holders will probably know better about that than I do. However, getting a space in the first place could be tricky. We may be able to allocate you a private parking space instead (see above), or we may be able to "save a place" by getting someone else to park there till you arrive (swopping at a pre-arranged time or alerted by text message). If you're someone who'd benefit from this, please get in touch so we can talk about setting it up.
The nearest car park is Talbot Street. Fairly expensive till 5pm, but doesn't have the 2-hour time limit that the on-street parking does. After 5pm, £1 for the rest of the evening.
Probably something like: 12 noon people arrive who are setting up activities & things-to-browse. 1pm other people start arriving. 2pm first Single Bass set, for about half an hour. Some time mid-afternoon another SB set. 7pm-ish final SB set. After that, some people will leave, to travel home (if long-distance visitors), go for a meal with friends, or do children's bedtimes. Others will stay & hang out & maybe order in takeaway food. 9pm the remaining people either leave or join in with packing away & putting the venue "back to normal". 10pm venue closes.
Except for the 9pm pack-up and 10pm venue close, all these times are to be confirmed. But it'll be something along those lines.
I'm actively intending to have some sections of nothing-in-particular happening, so that people feel they've got plenty of time to look round at all the static & optional stuff, and just chat and picnic.
The middle one of the three SB sets may remain unfixed till the day, so as to be flexible around what else is going on (e.g. if sunshine intermittent, taking advantage of it to be outside!).
Who's organising it?
Initially me, Jennifer, Single Bass: that is, the overall shape of the event is coming from my intuitive blueprint for it, and I'm putting up the money and doing most of the stuff before the day. But on the day, probably most of the people who come along will help in some way - some running an activity, some bringing resources, others by making cups of tea, helping to tidy up or whatever. I've already got support from some lovely people, and at this stage I'm happy to talk to anyone who's got ideas or feedback for me.
I've got a thing I'd like to contribute! Shall I bring it?
Not necessarily, but hurrah! Let's talk!
It won't be like purely "book a space and turn up", because I'm maintaining an overview of how all the elements fit together to make best use of the time and (limited) space. So I'll be having chats with interested people about exactly how their thing would fit into the event, both in spirit & in practice, including where in the venue we'd put it.
Ultimately if my instincts say "actually this isn't gonna fit in" then I retain right of veto, because I am the boss of it :-) But at this stage I'd be delighted to mull over almost any idea with almost anyone.
Besides the limits of space, there are some other practical considerations. There's a venue rule of no food or drink in the main hall, because of the nice furniture & polished floor, and the other spaces have carpet. So e.g. I'm telling the crafty people "best not anything with glue or paint". I'm not completely ruling out anything of that nature, but the top candidates are things which are both fascinating and very unlikely to cause any mess :-)
There are political/ethical criteria: co-operation without competition, respecting children as people, the value of science, human diversity being ordinary, etc. E.g. I've already got some posters off Stonewall (lesbian/gay/bisexual campaigning organisation) to put up on the day, which say "Different Families, Same Love".
And there's the age factor: things on the walls need to be suitable for all ages, and I don't want to take up too much of the space with stuff that only adults would be interested in. For instance, I'm hoping to have a table from Amnesty International, where people could write letters; and if that happens, I'll want it to revolve primarily around material from the Junior section. (That's designed for children around 7 to 11 to be able to send cards and learn about the principles of Amnesty's work, but without encountering the full spectrum of how horrible humans can be to each other.)
So those are some of the factors I'll be taking into account when mulling over the ideas and materials which could be woven in.
Even if you can't come yourself on the day, I'm happy to discuss taking leaflets, posters etc to have around, if you've got some that are compatible with the vibes of the event. I'd like Wovenfest to function as a hub for people to discover what community groups & resources are available to them, and/or to see human diversity reflected in lots of different ways. So assembling a beautiful variety of leaflets, posters or visual art is a vital strand.
How much will it be to get in?
I'm thinking in terms of "set your own value" admission, so as not to exclude skint people. More details of exactly how that'd work nearer the time.
Do we need to get tickets in advance?
Well, the venue capacity is limited to 300. If, from the feedback I'm getting, I start to get the feeling in around April or May that we might have more people wanting to come than that, then I probably will set up some kind of advance booking system, to make sure that the people who really really want to come don't miss out. But we might not need to.
How do I make sure I don't miss any developments?
There's a Single Bass emailing list, and I'm committed to keeping those people informed of any key events in "Single Bass world". Most people on that list aren't in Nottingham, so it's not like the venue would fill up just from them, but if there were limited tickets for something, they'd probably be first to hear. Besides gig announcements, they get notified when I release another song recording on the web site. If you want to be on that list, just email sb@(this web site address without the www) and ask.
I'm also happy to maintain a Wovenfest emailing list if people want that (because I realise not everyone coming to Wovenfest is necessarily into Single Bass music - you might like Wovenfest for other reasons). Again, ask if you'd like to be on that list.
For people who do Twitter, you can follow @Wovenfest &/or @SingleBass.
And of course you can keep checking back to this website.
Those are the places I'm promising to keep up-to-date. Some of you will originally have heard about the event via other email lists that I'm on - but obviously not everything about Wovenfest will necessarily be on topic for those lists, and I don't want to be spamming them. So if you're interested enough in Wovenfest that you think you might want to come along, I'd suggest not counting on those other lists for your news.
More later...