SouthWestFest 2022: A Breath of Fresh Air Impact Report

S O U T H W E S T F E S T A B R E A T H O F F R E S H A I R

WELCOME 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 our first year back working at full capacity with our large events. 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 2021 we took cautious steps back into the realm of physical community and cultural events, delivering a large number of smaller events whilst continuing to also offer digital events. In 2022, it felt safe to bring back our much missed large outdoor Opening Weekend events, as well as other larger events.

The theme selected for 2022 was A Breath of Fresh Air, which aimed to be a collective reset and refresh moving through Covid, providing missed and new opportunities for residents of all ages, facilitating safe, meaningful events and spaces where the community can come together.

Overview of the Year Continued...

Alongside this we feel it is urgent and important that we consider our position in tackling the climate emergency, and supported our community by raising awareness and programming exciting, practical and engaging sustainability and climate focused events and workshops. Westminster has the second worst levels of air pollution out of the 32 London boroughs, and our theme acknowledged this and intended to open up conversations and actions around this.

PIMLICO PROMS

“This was a great event - well organised, friendly and excellent music!”

by groups of adults and families alike, the overwhelming feeling of appreciation at its return was wonderful.

Demode Trio were a new addition to the line up and went down a storm with audience, bringing fresh takes on old classicals and a fantastic jazz swing vibe to St George's Square. We did have some ticketing issues this year which led to slightly smaller audience numbers than previous years, though no quieter or joyful!

FESTIVAL DAY

On our Main Stage we had 9 acts over the course of the day, made up of local bands and performance groups! On our smaller Theatre Stage we had performances of Errol's Garden on our Theatre Stage, a family musical about plants alongside planting workshops. We also had walkabout performances from local artist Harmony Thyme.

It was great to be working with our partners The Abbey Centre to bring back our Health Zone which featured 9 health and wellbeing stalls and activities to help share information and engage the community in healthy active lifestyles, alongside a rockclimbing wall!

Our Workshop Zone involved lots of recycled arts and crafts activities run by local partners such as LEYF and Westminster Abbey.

We had 30 community stalls, with a huge variety on offer. Get your face drawn by an artist from the Cartoon Museum, speak to your local Ward Councilors about local issues, activities to learn how to reduce your household emissions or buy art from a local artists. Other activities included the ever-popular fun fair rides and a pop-up farm from Vauxhall City Farm, as well as tasty food and treats!

This year we wanted to focus all of our workshop programme around our theme, bringing the community together and building awareness on the environment.

We ensured that our larger events included activities and workshops connected to the theme.

As a small organisation SouthWestFest started the process to review our environmental impact, with actions to take forward into the planning of next year.

70% of all SWF event participants surveyed agreed that 'This year's Festival provided new opportunities for the community to learn about the environment.'

This year we looked to create free, accessible and stimulating opportunities for young adults and adults to learn more about their environment both on a local and global level, skills and conversations they can take into their daily lives and connectivity with other participants.

After the success of last year's Day of Play in Churchill Garden's Square we decided to bring it back, with many returning happy faces!

Stikling Circus had all their equipment and facilitators running multiple activities and supporting children in free play.

6FootStories with 3 actor facilitators ran potato puppet making workshops, and encouraging play and storytelling with the finished puppets.

Growing Understandings ran 'Did You Eat Sunshine For Breakfast' workshops, focusing on the importance of plants in our lives, with planting and plant printing activities for children and families to take part in.

A day dedicated to Chloe Balloqui, a local girl who loved being creative and had a long history with SouthWestFest who sadly lost her life earlier this year due to cancer. A day to celebrate her and her love for play. We ran a butterfly recycled crafting activity, Chloe's favourite animal, resulting in a final butterfly memorial.

"I enjoyed Chloe's funday because there were so many things to do. My favourite was the diablo!" Aged 9

"Excellent - So much information help assistance given to us, has simply stirred up so many memories relating to my whole life." Aged 84

An exciting new project responding to 2021 feedback developed with Westminster Abbey, Westminster Archives, City Lions and Open Age.

The Project

Working with a group of local residents across generations, we learnt about the fascinating social history here in the streets of south Westminster, and in a series of workshops explored how their personal experiences and memories relate to the history all around them. The results were a series of artworks created by our residents which offer a unique insight into both personal and public histories of Westminster.

The Trail

These artworks were then turned into a walking Heritage Trail, appearing in local venues where audiences could explore the trail, discover the artworks and the local history that had inspired them.

Project and trail legacy page created on the SouthWestFest website to enable continued engagement.

It was fantastic to see that partners old and new were still excited for and stating the importance of the open access programme for their organisations.

OPEN-ACCESS PROGRAMME PARTNERS

We saw a decrease in partners from the past 2 years due to the return of our Festival Day where lots of partners get involved instead of hosting their own events.

100%

of those surveyed agreed and strongly agreed that SouthWestFest provides an opportunity for charities, businesses and community organisations to reach out to a wider audience in their area.

Community Champions| ETAT | Flamenco con Gusto | Grosvenor | Inner Wings Wellness | Millbank Creative Works | Open Age | Park Lane Jewellery| Pimlico Musical Foundation | St James the Less Church | St Saviour's Church | St Stephen's Church | Step Change Studios | Tate Britain | The Abbey Centre |Unique Dynamites | Westminster Abbey

Highlights

Cave Summer Exhibition

Long standing festival partner launched their Summer Exhibition featuring art from local artists

94.4% of those surveyed said that Yes, they would take part in SouthWestFest again

Open Age - Created a fantastic series of events themed on A Breath of Fresh Air, including Wellie Boot Window Pots, Green Peace, Green Place and Seed to Table

Partner Feedback

94.4%

of those surveyed agreed and strongly agreed that SouthWestFest encourages community spirit and connectivity.

“The festival enabled us to promote The Cartoon Museum in a corner of Westminster we rarely visit, so we thought it was a great success.”

“We’ve come to the end of another @SWFest. It's been lovely to see the community together for the festival at full capacity for the first time since 2019!”

surveyed

100%ofparticipants surveyedwere satisfiedwiththe qualityofthe workshopsandevents theytookpartin

69.9% of participants surveyed agreed that SouthWestFest provided new opportunities to learn about the climate crisis

96.7%ofparticipants surveyedagreedthat SouthWestFest encouragescommunity spiritandconnectivity inSW1

88.4% of participants surveyed said Yes, they would like to attend a SouthWestFest event in the future

Audience Feedback

Produced by The South Westminster Community Festival Charity