You Are Here y/n?

Jethro said :

I’m sure it appeals to a subset of people and for that I say continue enjoying your festival into the future.

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

For me the whole promotion (here, I saw none elsewhere,) smacked of elitism, snoot cocking, “look at me, look at me, look at me, aren’t I hip and cool and trendy!?!?”, and trying to be “controversial and confrontaive,” abet in a childish manner.

It came across as a group of students (all very conservative and homogenous in the “alternative” image of their grouping,) trying to avoid adulthood, have fun by sticking two fingers up at adults, and to draw attention to themselves.

I don’t know if that’s the impression you were trying to give, but that is the one I received.

Jethro said :

astrojax said :

Jethro said :

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

what, like posting droll vitriol in a public forum?

I don’t have misconceptions that my participation in discussions on the riot act is an act of significance. I am interested in local affairs and enjoy debate. My assessment of the You Are Here festival was that it should continue because the people involved clearly enjoyed it, but it seemed pretty meaningless to me and a fair few other people.

sure, but because they didn’t appeal to you means that the acts were therefore devoid of significance per se? which is what your comment inferred…

astrojax said :

Jethro said :

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

what, like posting droll vitriol in a public forum?

I don’t have misconceptions that my participation in discussions on the riot act is an act of significance. I am interested in local affairs and enjoy debate. My assessment of the You Are Here festival was that it should continue because the people involved clearly enjoyed it, but it seemed pretty meaningless to me and a fair few other people.

Hey – just wanted to weigh in to say thank you heaps for this – there are actually some seriously useful comments here, we will totally feed this stuff back to the Centenary.

Way to have nuanced opinions, all of you.

Jethro said :

I’m sure it appeals to a subset of people and for that I say continue enjoying your festival into the future.

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

That pretty much sums it up for me.

Good luck to you, and I wish you every success, because art is a great thing.

However, if you were in any way at all trying to attract me (male, middle aged, tertiary educated, married professional with kids, job, mortgage) then that hasn’t worked out very well. And I say this as someone with a deep interest in music (me, my wife and my kids all play a variety of instruments and my lounge room is choked with guitars and amps), cinema, live theatre, literature and art.

If I didn’t regularly cruise the RiotAct I wouldn’t have known it was on. Nobody I tried to discuss it with, from teenage kids, through hip twenty-something colleagues with amazing mobile phones, to other old farts at work or elsewhere had the slightest idea what I was on about when I mentioned it. So more and better marketing would probably help, regardless of your target audience.

A lot of what I saw on RiotAct didn’t attract me. I don’t feel actively excluded, because I’m not a wanker and just because something doesn’t appeal to me doesn’t make me think that the promoters are trying to piss me off. But still, it didn’t attract me.

It all revolved around Civic. Civic seems like a cesspit, or an armpit, or something, and I wouldn’t go anywhere near there, day or night, without packing heat. I have plenty of heat, but packing it is totally illegal, so I don’t go there at all. I suppose that even if something had truly interested me I still wouldn’t have gone. If there had been a gig somewhere in the wilds of Belco I probably would have attended.

Anyway, I hope you manage to have another lash at this next year. It sounds like some people had a lot of fun, and some tasty bread if nothing else. 🙂

…I was really impressed, and I hear the Torrance Community Dance Group have already booked in for next year

Jethro said :

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

what, like posting droll vitriol in a public forum?

I’m sure it appeals to a subset of people and for that I say continue enjoying your festival into the future.

For me and I would guess many others it appeared to be little more than people doing things they think are significant but actually aren’t.

I thought it was brilliant.

But I didn’t go.

Unfortunately I didn’t get to attend much of the festival, but from all reports it sounds like it went really well and presented some really interesting and unique events. As JB noted, aside from the inherant teething problems of an inaugural event such as this, there aren’t huge changes that need to occur I would think.

We also have to consider that by overcoming and making changes for next year we could also be harming the feel and quirkiness that made it what it was this year. Changes that I might be suggesting also may not be possible because of your funding, but I think having a stronger case and outline for next year will give you more of a chance and attracting more funding.

Some key recomendations I feel are needed:

– Stronger branding and identity of entire festival and events. I really like the ‘You Are Here’ title and think that should stay, but feel the design with regards to the website and print material could benefit from a creative agency being involved and giving the festival a stronger and clearer identity.

– Clearer program, list of events and descriptions and establishment of it much earlier. I found some of the events very confusing as to what they were all about and what they involved. It also all felt very rushed and last minute, no doubt because of the lack of time and resources on your behalf. But I think organising and confirming your program of events and promoting it over it a longer amount of time will allow more people to be involved and aware of the festival.

– Use of vacant shop fronts is a great idea I think, but possibly needed some form of solid signage/directions through the CBD to connect the vacant spaces. It felt at times as if you were wondering around trying to find something and not being too sure if you were on the right path. Something like a ‘You Are Here’ pathway through the CBD using signage and possibly some trail on the ground that connects all the spaces. This would also benefit the festival having a wider presence in the CBD and involving people who otherwise wouldn’t be aware about it.

– As has been mentioned before on RiotACT, involving people from wider areas in the arts could be benificial. But I also think the festival needs to retain it’s youthful/quirkier side of the arts to differentiate it from other festivals/events. Perhaps a good idea and one which is popular with many arts festivals, would be to allocate a curator to each section of the festival, someone with demonstrated local excellence in each category who can then work on the program for that section, organise events, liase with local artists and institutions.

– Open up the festival to discussion. Invite people to speak and debate about relevant areas to the festival and involve the audience. This also allows the oppertunity to invite interstate people to speak about their profession and provide forums and discussions with the public about different areas of the arts.

I could go on all day.. but these are just a few things I think could really benefit the festival for next year and make it grow into something bigger, better and (hopefully) permanent.