Save Sea Change Festival
One of the UK's best festivals is in a tricky situation – here's how you can help them out of it
Devon festival Sea Change has become something of an institution on the new and experimental music calendar over the past few years, thanks to its expert programming and forward-looking approach. It’s one of our favourite festivals here at L&Q, so we were very saddened when the news reached us this week that the team behind it is in a very tricky situation.
Tragically (and bafflingly), they missed out on vital cash from the government’s Culture Recovery Fund, so they’ve had to cancel their 2021 event and appeal to their audience to help them survive.
Rupert Morrison, Sea Change founder, gave the following statement in a press release.
“While already faced with the challenge of planning an event in such concerning times, last week’s news of our unsuccessful funding application left us floored. While we are certainly not criticising the Arts Council England and the awards that were granted, we remain convinced of the artistic merit of the festival and its suitability for funding. The forced cancellation of this year’s event, coupled with last week’s news, has left us financially crippled. Back in March, we were forced to postpone the live event that was scheduled to run in May. We quickly reacted by co-ordinating our first online festival and began working hard with all of our partners to deliver an event in 2021 that matched our ambitions.
“Since we heard about our unsuccessful funding application, we have been really blown away by the kindness of strangers and friends alike. We would like to thank everybody for their support and encouragement. We are phenomenally proud of our work over the last five years and everybody’s kindness has left us firm in the belief that we’ve created something good. The tagline for Sea Change 2020 was ‘Let Us Face The Future’; with your help this is going to take on an even greater significance.”
For more info, head to seachangefestival.co.uk and check out the crowdfunder – not to mention the benefits that donors to it will receive – at crowdfunder.co.uk/save-sea-change.