Funded: £21,245
The Sidmouth Folk Festival has been proudly championing traditional music, dance and song since 1955. In 2023, like many festivals and live events, they were still dealing with the fallout from 2020-21 as well as the ongoing cost of living crisis – and the ongoing impact of that on festival infrastructure suppliers. In a fast-changing events landscape, this meant some prices quickly outstripped their original budget.
One major issue they faced was how to get a quality dance floor in place in the Bulverton, a much-loved late-night festival marquee venue – in a field on top of a hill.
“We made a decision that keeping the Bulverton without the LNE ceilidhs would meet the needs of our audiences – rather than no Bulverton at all. But we made the wrong call. And as we were running out of time, we didn’t give you the chance to have your say.”
The festival was inundated with feedback from artists, volunteers, and ticket-buyers – all of whom said the dance floor was crucial. So the festival team responded.
With just weeks before the start of the festival, they launched a crowdfunding campaign to cover the cost of getting a floor installed at the Bulverton – and quickly outstripped their original target of £10,500, nearly hitting their first stretch goal of £20,000 in the first 24 hours! The stretch goal would allow them to not only get a dance floor installed for this year, but also work with the landowner to level the top of the hill where the marquee usually sits, ensuring the future of a modern, accessible dance venue for many years to come.
“You all have been amazing. Your enthusiasm, your memories, your dreams of future LNEs have made so much possible – more than we had even hoped possible a week ago.”
Since funding:
The 2023 festival went ahead with a high-quality dance floor in the Bulverton marquee… which meant, among many other things, the performance there from Tower Ravens won the Tradfolk Dance Performance of the Year 2023.
Tradfolk commented: “This performance, Berkshire Bedlams’ above and all the other brilliant LNE dance displays wouldn’t have happened this year (and perhaps ever again) without the mobilisation and generosity of the folk dance community in Spring 2023 when it was looking like the Bulverton tent would not have a dance floor this year. In a few short days, a crowdfunder raised around £25,000 to not only secure a floor for 2023, but also to fund groundworks to make it cheaper to put in the dance floor in future years. Here’s to many more years of excellent morris LNE performances!”
Tower Ravens said: “It was such an honour to be asked to perform on the last night and felt like a real finale to a hard but fantastic week of dancing. I feel that it represents all of Tower Ravens’ success – great dancing with amazing people. And the atmosphere was something else, especially with the floor fiasco – everyone was cheering us on and just enjoying the spectacle. We’ve never had that good a reception elsewhere.”