Cottingham Springboard Festival

Cottingham Springboard Festival is a free live music festival that takes place annually in the village of Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

History

The first Cottingham Springboard Festival was created as an afternoon and evening music event. It took place on 12 August 2006 in the Old Brewery Room of the King William IV public house in Cottingham.^[1]

In 2007 the festival was expanded to a full weekend,^[2] and in 2008 had spread to five venues.^[3] The success of the festival gave rise to a spin-off event Springboard Monthly, an evening based at the King William IVth showcasing new and upcoming acts which ran until 2011.^[4]

By 2010 the event was being held across six venues (The King William IV, The Blue Bell, The Duke of Cumberland, The Hallgate Tavern, The Cross Keys and The Railway Hotel) with eight amplified and managed stages and several open mic and busking areas. In 2011 The Black Prince venue joined in the festival, taking the place of the Railway Hotel, not involved for 2011. ^[5]

Organisation and Ethos

Cottingham Springboard Festival is currently run by a team of organisers working independently of each other based in each of the venues, who work closely with the landlord/landlady/manager of the venue. This results in each venue having its own full schedule and opening and closing times in accordance with the particular venue's licensee.

The ethos of the festival is to promote live music while showcasing a broad and eclectic range of local and regional musicians along with guests from further afield, to the general public, without making a charge to enable it to be as accessible to everyone as possible. A promotional CD of a selection of acts is usually compiled and available at the festival.

Funding

The festival requires funds to cover advertising, equipment and administrative costs. In order to remain free to festival-goers, the festival relies wholly on support from the following sources:

• The performers, who waive their regular fees to perform for free at the festival
• Volunteering, which provides the sound technicians, compares, stage crews, a street team and road crew
• The individual venues, which cover the cost of the P.A. and technical equipment hire for the full festival period in respect of their venue and contribute to publicity costs
• Local companies providing sponsorship
• Organisations providing sponsorship in kind (a sound system and technical assistance was provided to Springboard by the Bose Corporation for one of its venues for the 2011 festival, and the Cottingham Times ^[6] usually runs a promotional feature.
• Funding received, when applications are successful, from organisations that have so far included the Cottingham Parish Council, the Arts Council England the National Lottery and EYEvents ^[7]

Performers

The festival showcases on average around 200 acts each year,^[8] providing a platform for both talented new performers alongside the more experienced and well-known acts. At least one international act has also been showcased each year including performers from Canada, Senegal, Tasmania and Australia. Of particular note French-based American bluesman Adrian Byron Burns (Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings) has been a frequent high-profile contributor to the event. At the 2009 festival the Blue Bell venue was compared by the Hull Blokes comedy collective. The 2010 festival was involved in the launch of a CD by a number of festival performers as part of the Larkin 25 project, which marked the 25th anniversary of the death of the poet Philip Larkin. The 2011 festival also bills Ted Key, a prolific local performer well known from his time with The Housemartins.

Sources

1. ^ Johnson, Paul Jump On The Springboard Hull Daily Mail 5 August 2006
2. ^ The Cottingham Times Springboard Live Free Music Festival at the King William IV Pub August 10th, 11th and 12th The Cottingham Times issue 68/July 2007
3. ^ The Cottingham Times Springboard Free Live Music Festival to take place between the 6th and 8th June at Five Venues throughout Cottingham The Cottingham Times issue 78/May 2008
4. ^ Springboard Monthly website
5. ^ The Cottingham Times Acoustic, Electric, Eclectic: Back For 2011 The Cottingham Springboard Free Live Music Festival, May 26th to May 29th The Cottingham Times May 2007
6. ^ Cottingham Times website
7. ^ East Riding Of Yorkshire Council's EYEvents website
8. ^ official Springboard website