Sea Change Festival shared the following news today regarding next year’s festival and their future:
Last week’s news that Devon’s Sea Change Festival was not chosen to receive any of the government’s Cultural Recovery Fund has left the event in a perilous position. Today, Sea Change is turning towards its loyal audience to help salvage the event and give it a future.
Sea Change Festival is a truly independent event, which has flourished, until now, without corporate financial backing. In April this year, after seven months of planning and investment, organisers were forced to cancel the festival scheduled for the late May Bank Holiday 2020, due to Covid-19 restrictions. This sad, but inevitable, decision left the festival financially parlous and with liabilities to several of its valued and longstanding partners, all of whom are independent businesses or freelancers also facing an uncertain time.
To cover these debts and give the festival an opportunity of running into the future, Sea Change applied for £92,362 from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund. The application was unsuccessful.
As a result, we are sad to announce that there will be no physical Sea Change Festival in 2021.
When we shared last week’s news, we were immediately heartened by the messages of support from our audience, as well as artists and figures from across the music world; it is clear that the audience loves the festival.
So, today, the festival is asking for help from the audience. It needs to raise £25,000 to clear the immediate debts accrued through the forced cancellation of this year’s event and to raise the possibility of returning with a future edition of Sea Change.
The Sea Change Cultural Recovery Crowdfunder is up-and-running at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/save-sea-change
Everybody who decides to contribute will be helping to save the festival. In addition, all contributors will be entered into a series of regular prize draws to win special items from artists and labels, including artwork, special releases, rare editions, test pressings and other beautiful items to be confirmed. Everybody who contributes will be recognised separately too.
Now in its fifth year, Sea Change Festival has quickly become one of the most distinctive events in a busy festival calendar. Staring life in Totnes, the festival is now based entirely in Devon’s 1200-acre Dartington Hall Estate, finding its way into beautiful green spaces, the 700 year-old Great Hall and William Lescaze’s twin Modernist masterpieces, Foxhole Gymnasium and High Cross House.
Founded by Totnes’s Drift Record Shop and curated by people who spend all day listening to new – and some old – records, Sea Change’s music choices are exciting, surprising and always sound; but it also reaches into other disciplines, creating artful combinations and magic moments in tucked-away corners of the historic site. In recent years, Sea Change has played host to the likes of Damo Suzuki, Aldous Harding, Shirley Collins, The Comet is Coming, Black Midi, Peggy Seeger, Andrew Weatherall, Gruff Rhys, Lubomyr Melnyk, The Orielles and Gwenno. Last year saw Stewart Lee leading a packed and emotional audience in a rousing chorus of the songs of Bagpuss; On-U Sound producer Adrian Sherwood DJ-ing in the Overlook Hotel-like surroundings of the Dartington Gymnasium; and the Modernist masterpiece High Cross House coming to life with live sets, discussions and specially- commissioned events and installations.
Rupert Morrison, Sea Change Festival founder, said, “While already faced with the challenge of planning an event in such concerning times, last week’s news of our unsuccessful funding application left us floored. While we are certainly not criticising the Arts Council England and the awards that were granted, we remain convinced of the artistic merit of the festival and its suitability for funding. The forced cancellation of this year’s event, coupled with last week’s news, has left us financially crippled. Back in March, we were forced to postpone the live event that was scheduled to run in May. We quickly reacted by co-ordinating our first online festival and began working hard with all of our partners to deliver an event in 2021 that matched our ambitions.”
“Since we heard about our unsuccessful funding application, we have been really blown away by the kindness of strangers and friends alike. We would like to thank everybody for their support and encouragement. We are phenomenally proud of our work over the last five years and everybody’s kindness has left us firm in the belief that we’ve created something good. The tagline for Sea Change 2020 was ‘Let Us Face The Future’; with your help this is going to take on an even greater significance.”
SEA CHANGE 2020 REFUND INFORMATION
Everybody who has purchased a ticket for the 2020 event and would like a refund, is, of course, most welcome to one (and full information is below). Alternatively, anybody that might consider gifting us their ticket price will be given a massive cheer.
Refunds on all ticket purchases are available from point of purchase but you will need you to request this action. As part of our fundraising initiatives, we can offer that your ticket purchase be kept by Sea Change as a donation. Any tickets that have not been requested for refund by Tuesday 1 December 2020 will be processed as a donation.
Seetickets.com will contact all of its Sea Change ticket holders via email. Any queries can also be raised here: www.seetickets.com/customerservice
Photo Credit: Kirsty Burge