from fields to front rooms: the rise of the virtual fest
Stirling based social entrepreneur, Matt McGrandles, organised Scotland’s first virtual St Andrew’s Day Music Festival.
As 2020 draws to a close, we caught up with Stirling based social entrepreneur Matt McGrandles to talk about delivering cultural events in an extraordinary year.
Last month, Matt’s social enterprise Ceangail delivered the Frontline Festival Scotland, a virtual St Andrew’s Day Gig in aid of Scotland’s frontline workers.
The festival was broadcast live on Facebook to homes across the globe on Monday 30 November and featured 39 Scottish artists, from big names such as Wet, Wet, Wet to up and coming bands.
Where did the idea for the Frontline Festival come from?
Back in March when the pandemic hit, I signed up to volunteer straight away. I guess with the amount of people stepping forward there was more support offered than needed. So I decided around that time that the best way that both myself and Ceangail could become part of the fight against covid-19, and show our support for frontline emergency services, was to organise a fundraising event. Frontline Festival Scotland grew from there.
What have been the main challenges?
The main challenges at the start were to find the funds needed to deliver the event and deciding whether it was going to be a physical event or a virtual one. With not knowing what November would look like due to covid-19 (there were so many logistics I couldn’t be sure about), I stopped looking for a venue and started to look at how we could deliver it virtually. I created three delivery models, so depending on Government guidelines we were always going to be able to deliver the event.
Why are festivals important just now?
Ceangail’s projects always provide support to more than just the beneficiaries and the Frontline Festival Scotland project was no different. The event supported a delivery team, giving those small businesses purpose, and improved the mental health of and gave purpose to 39 Scottish artists; with the end result of raising awareness of and funds for the four emergency service charities:
I chose to focus on a virtual music event because of the enjoyment music brings. This was important factor, as we are all feeling a bit down due to the pandemic. I also decided that it should be free to watch on the day, removing any financial barriers, so that everyone was able to enjoy the festival.
What are the benefits of virtual?
There are some definite benefits to virtual, namely the reach you can achieve however it’s not without its challenges too. As we experienced, there needs to be better connectivity and faster download speeds in all areas of the UK so viewers can access virtual content.
This isn’t the first time you’ve gone digital this year.
That’s right. We delivered a virtual event in August called The Best of Stirling with Stirling Highland Games. This event is usually Ceangail’s main annual fundraiser, however we decided to make it a free to view event this year.
Over the last few years Stirling Highland Games has attracted over 25,000 people, boosting the local economy by over £1.2m. The committee agreed that we couldn’t let all the momentum and hard work go to waste, so we created our virtual event.
I decided to show this event from a visitor’s viewpoint. That way viewers could experience all aspects of the Stirling Highland Games, from the games themselves to creative arts performances - in the hope that once restrictions were lifted, tourists would see Stirling as a must visit destination.
For all our sakes, let’s hope by August 2021 we are able to deliver large events again.
Ceangail CIC was founded in November 2012 by Matt McGrandles. During his time both working for others as well as on his own ventures he gained an understanding that, like himself, people engage more in the learning process when there are practical experiences involved. After some thought, the vision for what was to become Ceangail CIC was in place: ‘Empowering young people with employability and enterprise skills needed in the work place’. Ceangail has gone on to support numerous young people in various training programmes all with practical experiences. These include “Into Events” and “Digital Media” where core skills training is balanced with skills based learning, all of which is put into use as part of the course.