My name is Vanessa Magowan and with my husband we are the co-founders and
directors of Sunflowerfest
It began in 2009 when our son was raising money for a charity
We had a gig in the backyard in Hillsborough
but we ended up with 16 other bands and we catered and it was the best gig in town!
Michael had been to Glastonbury and he had felt that this was something
really worthwhile doing for this country
We had this beautiful farm which we wanted to share
The next year, 2010, we had our first real Sunflowerfest
We begin planning the next year's event as soon as the last one is completed
We have to complete a lot of survey evaluation forms for various funding bodies
We have to apply for various licenses
We have to nominate who's going to take some of our big pictures in terms of the traders or the bar
We start preparing for volunteers
In terms of the site preparation and site maintenance
We have to really plan what we're going to do
In terms of the administration and in terms of timelines we've started using a management programme
which is quite useful and it just sort of clearly sets out
what has to be ordered, when it has to be ordered
Basically it just comes up every day what tasks are due - it could be ordering screws for some site prep
to getting quotes on production
As soon as one festival finishes, we're advertising for next year's festival
We're pretty active on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and we use the Facebook advertising ad manager
We used to do a lot of print media, some radio interviews, but by far we found social media
and advertising specifically with Facebook is the best way
In terms of targeting and having a specific demographic, it really would come down to when we target
rather than who we target because it is a family-friendly festival
Plenty of time before the June holidays - that's when we would
be pushing family marketing on social media and emails
All the promotion is through our website
We would direct all the traffic through our website, where we have ticket links
to our ticketing platform
we do set measures and objectives for our sales and marketing
Every year I'm happy to say we have increased our ticket revenue and ticket sales
Health and safety is paramount to the success of the event
We don't want any injuries, accidents or incidents
We always organize a bluelight meeting and so that would be
a representative from the police, the fire brigade, the ambulance services,
Environmental Health and the council.
I have to oversee, review and update our event management plan
and also the the traffic management plan.
I have to do a risk assessment.
There's all the usual public liability, product liability, employer liability insurance
We cover all our volunteers in the lead up to the event
Because it's a working farm, we can only do what we can do
Where we can't actually remove the risk
We try to mitigate it. It could be through signs or it could be through barriers
We're very appreciative of Tourism NI because for the last few years they have have contributed
a significant amount of money. We couldn't have done it without their help.
also Lisburn Council and most recently, the last two years, we've had support from Arts and Business
That's been great because they've provided funding when we've had
businesses interested in giving us some sponsorship.
The biggest challenge would be
keeping your survival sustainable
another challenge would be to spread the word and get the message out
I think we've been successful in that in more recent times but that has been a challenge
Thank goodness for social media
The biggest tip is firstly to have passion with what you want to do
Tip number two is seek support, and not just financial - but financial is a big part of it,
Seek support from any resources you can.
The third tip is tenancity and hard work -
Be tenacious, if you believe in your product. Don't take no for an answer.