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Getting CREATE-ive

When I joined Create in January 2007, I took on a big piece of work that Create had been working on to develop the York and North Yorkshire Festivals sector.

My personal ambition was to see a large scale arts festival in Scarborough. Create traditionally has run a Festival of Light each December, so we started to explore the possibility of launching a Festival for Scarborough.

Coastival is born

In May 2008 Create began organising a big arts festival in Scarborough called ‘Coastival – Yorkshire Goes to the Seaside’. The festival is promoting theatre, music, dance, the visual arts, spoken word, comedy, film and incorporates the Festival of Light. It also has a big focus on children and young people with an arts and education festival called ‘Rollercoastival’.

Team work

Create is managing Coastival but has been working with a wide range of other groups who are expert in their fields, like Musicport, Scarborough Jazz, Scarborough Literature Festival, Other Side Comedy Club, Acoustic Gathering, Sun Court Film Festival and York University Music Department.

Getting it together

I have been working on Coastival for the past 18 months and it has been a journey! What started as a vision for an exciting arts festival in Scarborough is now 96 events in 30 venues in Scarborough over three days.

Raising the funds for Coastival has been nerve-wracking – but great to get support from the Arts Council, Awards for All, and local business sponsors.

What to look forward to at Coastival

It was the icing on the cake when we managed to secure ‘Feeder’ to headline Coastival. The most exciting time for me was seeing the brochure in print. What an intricate piece of work, made much easier by the patience of Adrian from Electric Angel.Ìý

A dream comes true

My vision of Coastival is finally coming to fruition.Ìý It has not been without its low times – worrying about the balance of what we are offering, waiting for confirmation of headliners and still waking up in the night worrying.

I hope everyone who comes to a Coastival event has an enjoyable and memorable experience. Enjoy!