Open Air Business April 2017
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
The UK's outdoor hospitality business magazine for function venues, glampsites, festivals and outdoor events
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EVENTS<br />
CASE STUDY<br />
Ireby Festival<br />
A strict maximum capacity and quality artists mean<br />
this 15 year old festival in the Lake District has a<br />
reputation for selling out early<br />
A community event, the Ireby Festival is held in a small farming village<br />
on the north-western edge of the Lake District National Park. Despite its<br />
self-imposed small size, it attracts visitors from around the UK to its mix<br />
of folk, roots and Americana music. <strong>Open</strong> <strong>Air</strong> <strong>Business</strong> talks to founder Charles Devlin.<br />
Describe your event and how<br />
many people it attracts?<br />
Ireby is a small farming village<br />
in Cumbria, with a population<br />
of about 150. The festival is<br />
designated a not for profit<br />
community organisation and has<br />
a self-imposed capacity of 650.<br />
Music venues include St James’<br />
Church, the village hall and the<br />
local pub, Emily’s Black Lion. The<br />
village square is also a popular<br />
meeting point, as is the Women’s<br />
Institute; the ladies here make<br />
delicious soup and home bakes.<br />
The local primary school is<br />
involved and the Woodlands<br />
Country Guest House, which hosts<br />
music workshops. Concerts are<br />
held in a 12th Century chancel<br />
(the original Ireby church) situated<br />
a mile from the village. There is<br />
no vehicle access so visitors are<br />
“THE LOCAL<br />
PRIMARY<br />
SCHOOL IS<br />
INVOLVED<br />
AND THE<br />
WOODLANDS<br />
COUNTRY<br />
GUEST<br />
HOUSE,<br />
WHICH<br />
HOSTS MUSIC<br />
WORKSHOPS”<br />
taken on a guided walk from the<br />
festival site to the chancel. The<br />
main stage is a wide span marquee<br />
with a seating capacity of 650. The<br />
festival attracts people from all<br />
over the UK and has developed a<br />
reputation for selling out early.<br />
How does the relationship with<br />
the landowner work?<br />
The festival arena houses the<br />
main stage, tents, camper vans<br />
and a small number of caravans.<br />
From the onset, the local farmer<br />
has been a staunch supporter<br />
of the festival, and three weeks<br />
before the event he will free up<br />
several fields for our use. These<br />
are conveniently situated just a<br />
few minutes’ walk from the village<br />
square. Prior to the festival these<br />
field are grazed by sheep and<br />
cattle.<br />
What is the event’s history and<br />
what made you decide to run it?<br />
A chat over a glass of wine at a<br />
friend’s birthday party brought<br />
about the idea of a festival.<br />
At that time, I was a booking<br />
agent for a number of folk/roots<br />
musicians in the UK and Canada,<br />
so programming such an event<br />
was fairly straight forward. The<br />
inaugural festival was held 15<br />
years ago in Susan Gray’s garden<br />
and sold 100 tickets. Initially, we<br />
just used the village hall but as the<br />
popularity of the festival grew we<br />
were offered an alternative, more<br />
spacious venue in the grounds of<br />
another private dwelling in the<br />
village, Ellenside House, where a<br />
main stage marquee was erected<br />
within the perimeter of a tennis<br />
court. The festival remained here<br />
until 2012 when it’s popularity<br />
48 WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM
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