S O U T H W E S T F E S T R E I M A G I N E D 2 0 2 1
IMPACT REPORT
WELCOME
To work collaboratively with partners and local groups from all sectors
To create opportunities which encourage community celebration, spirit and cohesion, creating events that build good community connections.
To create events that are as inclusive and accessible as possible, which tackle social exclusion and reach the more isolated members of our community.
To promote local groups, organisations and services, generating partnerships and collaborations.
To connect communities to new local services and opportunities.
To champion, empower and facilitate grassroots community action and leadership, enabling the people and groups we work with to create innovative projects, engaging events, positive placemaking experiences and opportunities for their communities.
We do this by working with local partners, residents, artists and practitioners to plan events, workshops and activities which change each year and will continue to engage and inspire residents to come out and take part. We create both a curated programme of themed festival events, alongside an open access programme of partner events.
This year's festival has been a testament to collaboration and partnership working as we have taken steps towards the road to recovery amidst the Covid-19 pandemic. This impact report provides us with a fantastic opportunity to highlight all the incredible events, projects and activities that SouthWestFest has been able to deliver this year, thanks to the support and contributions of our festival partners and friends.
Overview of the Year
In 2020 we had to cancel our physical events due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to our first successful Digital Festival. For 2021 we decided to take cautious steps back into the realm of physical community and cultural events, taking our successes from 2020, and continuing to also offer digital events. In addition planning for our 2021 programme also allowed us to develop projects and partnerships initiated in 2020.
We saw 2021 as an opportunity to explore doing things differently, looking at how we could develop a flexible and responsive programme of community and cultural events and activities which people would feel safe to take part in.
Overview of the Year Continued...
As such this year we decided to forgo our usual large scale outdoor events such as the Pimlico Proms and Festival Day in St Georges Square and instead developed outdoor new events and projects which offered opportunities for continued social distancing, as well as working with venues and event partners to ensure indoor events and workshops were Covid Secure.
As part of this work SouthWestFest received it's ‘We’re Good to Go’ industry standard from Visit England. In response to changing situations with venue and facilitator availability, as well as changes in government guidelines, we were adaptive in our event delivery, causing minimal cancellations and disruption to the final event programme.
Festival Highlights
Highlights from our ‘Reimagined’ festival programme this year included the development of our online and on foot Art Trail, which was initially piloted as part of our 2020 Digital Festival programme, and was brought back even bigger and better due to popular demand!
We also launched our first-ever Health Trail weekend partnering with the Community Health Champions and the Abbey Centre; we offered a weekend of free health, wellbeing and sports activities and classes. Our SouthWestFest in the Streets Pop Up performances took our festival stage on tour around public spaces in Victoria and Pimlico and Coco Sato was our Artist In Residence producing a site-specific paper art installation at Westminster Abbey.
Dodie Finamore worked with the local community to write, record and produce the (Re)Discover Audio Trail, exploring place and heritage in and around Pimlico. We also worked with the Mayfair Youth Forum to support them in gaining event management skills as they produced their own Young Mayfair SouthWestFest day in Grosvenor Square.
We went back to our community roots with our Day of Play at Churchill Gardens Square with classic playground games, circus skills, hula hooping, potato puppets, chalk drawing and more. We also partnered with Pimlico Picassos on their ‘Quirky Quarantine Quibbles’ writing and drawing competition, leading to the publication of a book!
These highlights only touch the surface of a phenomenal three weeks of events held with local partners, residents and venues. 2021 has been a great opportunity to see how we can do the festival differently, and we will be using all the feedback gained, plus continued conversations with our local community to help us shape future editions of the festival.
THIS YEAR
3 week festival programme
100+ Events both physical and digital
30+ Venue Partners
40+ Event Partners
100+ Artists and Performers
5000+ Physical Audience Reach
10,000+ Digital Audience Reach
IN NUMBERS
ART TRAIL
6 DAY ART TRAIL EXHIBITION + ONLINE EXHIBITION
30+ ARTISTS CONTRIBUTED TO THE ONLINE AND ONFOOT ART TRAIL EXHIBITION
18 VENUE PARTNERS OFFERED SPACE TO HOST ARTWORK IN WINDOWS, GALLERIES AND PUBLIC SPACES, FROM PRESTIGIOUS CULTURAL LANDMARKS
2 X GUIDED ART TRAIL TOURS TOOK PLACE WITH 50+ PARTICIPANTS
FAMILY ART TRAIL WORKSHOPS AND KITE PACKS WITH PIMLICO TOY LIBRARY
LIVE ART PERFORMANCES, PLUS POP UP PERFORMANCES WITH SWF IN THE STREETS
1 WEEK OF ART AND CULTURAL THEMED EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS ALONGSIDE THE TRAIL
“I feel Art Trail can only grow from here. It’s already a date in the calendar of local artists and breeds motivation!”
This year we developed our Online and On Foot Art Trail taking on sole producing, building on the pilot from 2020 that was developed with the cave. Working with illustrator Ben Poultney of Draw my Town, we created an eye catching map for audiences to follow to discover the art, artists as well as a way to explore the area.
We worked with local artist Harmony Thyme who met with the artists to talk about their craft and led the guided tours attended by people of all ages. Art Trail venues had a wide reach across the south of the borough, stretching from the very top of St James’ Ward at Westminster Reference Library down to the very edge of Churchill Ward at the Rent Office.
We also ran family workshops and activities so children could design their own SouthWestFest Kite to display along the art trail.
As well as creating a fantastic engaging, healthy and exciting trail for our audiences, we fostered a community amongst the artists, with a group of them now meeting monthly to discuss their work and create together.
HEALTH TRAIL
3 DAY HEALTH TRAIL
1 HEALTH TRAIL POP UP STALLS EVENT
33 HEALTH TRAIL WEEKEND ONLINE AND IN PERSON EVENTS, CLASSES, WORKSHOPS AND GYM TRIALS
8 HEALTH TRAIL VENUE PARTNERS
25+ FURTHER EVENTS TAKING PLACE ACROSS THE FOLLOWING HEALTH AND WELLBEING THEMED WEEK FOR THE WIDER FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
“Really enjoyed the exercise classes in person and online. Thank you”
This year saw the launch of our first ever Health Trail programme which was run in conjunction with our partners the Community Health Champions and the Abbey Centre.
The Health Trail kicked off with our Pop Up Information event, which included stalls with advice on local health initiatives, bike repairs, Covid-19 testing kits, ping pong games, recycling activities and more.
Special events and classes within the weekend Health Trail Programme included online Fitness Classes with local PT Brian Richmond, Maxercise with Maxine Jones, Outdoor Yoga Sessions, Hula Hooping Lessons, Healthy History Walks, free Swimming and Gym Passes with Queen Mothers Sports Centre, plus Cycle Confidence Lessons with Walk and Cycle, plus Swimming Home Digital Theatre show.
The week following the Health Trail weekend, our festival programme was health themed, and our open access partners contributed further free and low cost health and wellbeing themed events including outdoor Wimbledon Tennis Screenings, Pilates Classes, Mindfulness workshops and more.
CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE & FAMILIES
This year we were able to bring back our Families and Young People Programme with more events and partners than ever before!
Key Events & Activities
Quirky Quarantine Quibbles with Pimlico Picassos
Reimagine Westminster Stop Motion Animation
Workshops with Chocolate Films
Tanabata Star Festival Paper Art Workshops
Family Art Trail Art Packs and Workshop with Pimlico Toy Library
Playwrighting, Poetry and Prose Workshop with Yan Toby-Amisi, co-produced with City Lions and Iris Theatre
Singalong with Pimlico Musical Foundation
Healthy Baking with Abbey Centre
SouthWestFest in the Streets
Day of Play
Nature Trail by Pimlico Picassos
Young Mayfair with Mayfair Youth Forum
3 WEEK PROGRAMME
10 SPECIALLY CURATED INDOOR WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS
5 OUTDOOR FUN EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES
15 PARTNER ORGANISATIONS IN 10 VENUES ACROSS SOUTH WESTMINSTER
+ MORE EVENTS AND ACTIVIES DELIVERED AS PART OF OUR OPEN ACCESS PROGRAMME
“Annabelle had a lovely time with her art work project and went to bed holding her kite!”
This year we looked to create free, accessible and stimulating opportunities for children, their families and young people to encourage, creativity, wellbeing and activity after multiple lockdowns. We worked hard to ensure that the majority of this programme could take place in-person in Covid-secure venues and community spaces or outside, as now more than ever, interpersonal relationships are vital for children and young people’s development.
SOUTHWESTFEST IN THE STREETS
1 DAY LONG EVENT
6 POP UP PERFORMANCES
3 CENTRAL OUTDOOR LOCATIONSGROSVENOR GARDENS, WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL AND TACHBROOK MARKET
65 PERFORMERS
1000+ AUDIENCE MEMBERS
#NeverTooOld #NeverTooLatToDance! #AgeingJoyfully”
For 2021 we took our Festival Day performances out into the streets of Westminster, with pop up performances from some of our favourite local performers!
The day kicked off with carnival celebrations provided by UDM Samba, as they brought a little bit of Brazil to Grosvenor Gardens with their vibrant combination of percussion, song and dance.
We winded our way along to Westminster Cathedral Piazza where audiences were greeted by the wonderful talents of Dance West and UDM Samba showing us all how it’s done on the dancefloor! Finally we went on to finish the afternoon at Tachbrook Market, with a phenomenal performance from Westminster School of Performing Arts and a fiery Mediterranean finale from Flamenco con Gusto!
“Wonderful to have the opportunity to learn lovely choreography & improvisation too..
It was fantastic to see that partners old and new were still excited for and stating the importance of the openaccess programme for their organisations.
We saw an increase in partners from previous years, 9 more than 2020 with a total of 35 this year, including 8 new partners!
100%
100% of Partners surveyed said that Yes, they would take part in SouthWestFest again
75% of those surveyed said they would like to see us include online events listings as part of future festival open access registration alongside physical events.
100% of those surveyed said they found our partners promotion pack useful when promoting their participation in the festival programme.
OPEN-ACCESS PROGRAMME PARTNERS
Abbey Community Association | Abundance Arts | Citizens Art Market | City of Westminster Council| Change4Life | Community Champions | Dance West | Emmanuel Church | Finn Fitness | Grosvenor | Harmony Thyme | LALGRA | Mayfair Youth Forum | Millbank Creative Works | Musicus CIC | One You | Open Age | Pimlico Library | Pimlico Musical Foundation | Pimlico Picassos CIC | Queen Mother Sports Centre | Silvia Mercuriali Artist | Sketch Appeal CIC | South Westminster Community Choir| St Andrew's Club | St James the Less Church | St Saviour's Church | Step Change Studios | Tate Britain | The Abbey Centre | The Pimlico Million | Victoria and Northbank BID | Westminster Abbey | Westminster Adult Education Service (WAES) | Westminster City Lions| Westminster Community Gospel Choir | Westminster Guides | Westminster Music Library | Westminster Talking Therapies
Highlights
Ebury Edge Art Market
Celebrating the opening of the new Ebury Edge district, new festival partnerCitizens Art Market, launched it's first event alongside the SouthWestFest Art Trail
St uided Walk w Westminster Guides - Long-t partners of SouthWestFest, Westmin guides curated special guided walks of south Westminster a
Partner Feedback
82% of those surveyed agreed that SouthWestFest provides an opportunity for charities, businesses and community organisations to reach out to a wider audience in their area
“A great way to interact with local residents about our services and promote our health and wellbeing messages within the community, especially during this time where restrictions were still lifting. SouthWestFest were fantastic and very flexible in supporting the activity.”
“I just wanted to write and say a huge thank you for involving us in the Festival this year. We have just had incredible feedback from the young people, their families and our adults!”
SPECIAL PROJECTS
COCO SATO - ARTIST IN RESIDENCEINSTALLATION AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY
SWIMMING HOME - DIGITAL THEATRE SHOW
(RE)DISCOVER AUDIO TRAIL
QUIRKY QUARANTINE QUIBBLESDRAWING & STORY COMPETITION
Building on new connections made in 2020, we re-commissioned the artists' Coco Sato and Dodie Finamore. Sato developed her paper art workshop series, in addition to creating a site-specific paper art installation Tanabata: Story of Two Stars, hosted by new partner Westminster Abbey as part of our Art Trail. Finamore created a new community project called (Re)Discover Audio Trail, piecing stories and memories from the community with those that do not know the area into a self-led 45 audio guided walk around Pimlico exploring place and space.
We supported established local partner Pimlico Picassos to run a storybook competition called Quirky Quarantine Quibbles, reaching out to all ages, encouraging creativity, with the top stories and illustrations being published in a book!
We also created new partnerships, including commissioning the artist Silvia Mercuriali to offer their digital and audio theatre experience Swimming Home for free to our audiences, which they could participate in, at home, in their own bathroom.
AUDIENCE & PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK
97.5%ofparticipants surveyedwere satisfiedwiththe qualityofthe workshopsandevents theytookpartin
58% preferred in person events
19% preferred online events
23% had no preference
80%ofparticipants surveyed VeryStrongly agreedthat SouthWestFest encouragescommunity spiritandconnectivity inSW1
93% of participants surveyed said yes, they would like to attend a SouthWestFest event in the future
Audience Feedback
"I always enjoyed SouthWestFest, it was lovely event for the children especially. A memorable day."
"Excellent, professional walking tour guide. Most enjoyable couple of hours & met some super people."
"Wonderful event. You're not only helping the local community but the world community!"
“The street dancers' performance and the steel band were most entertaining.”
“Yoga in the park and peace walk in the park, both by Harmony Thyme were delightful.”
“Interacting with the artists and seeing art in different local abodes worked really well.”
52,538 Twitter Impressions 15,984 unique webpage visits 89,824 Facebook reach #SouthWestFest 68 uses #SouthWestFest2021 86 uses SOCIAL MEDIA LISTENING 256 Instagram story mentions
LISTENI
www.southwestfest.org.uk
Produced by The South Westminster Community Festival Charity