Curated Place achieved multiple wins at The Drum UK Event Awards 2017 including Cultural Event of the Year and Small Event of the Year with its four-day festival in Hull. Here, the agency discusses how it made these multiple achievements possible.
Executive Summary
In April, we worked with Hull 2017 UK City of Culture to produce a four-day music festival featuring 47 artists performing in six venues, co-curated with American singer-songwriter John Grant. The Festival brought together the twin cities of Reykjavik and Hull, promoting the Nordics and UK Collaborations using music and arts as a conduit to create deep, meaningful connections between cities. As well as securing a major client in Hull 2017 we also worked with Radio 4 to record Late Junction in which 17 of the artists in the festival performed and collaborated with each other for the first time.
Over the May Day Bank Holiday in April/May 2017 Curated Place joined forces with Reykjavik based singer-songwriter John Grant to create and curate John Grant’s North Atlantic Flux: sounds from Smoky Bay. Inviting Nordic and international artists to take over the city the event sat at the heart of the Roots and Routes season of Hull 2017 – UK City of Culture and showcased Curated Place’s unique skills in delivering original artistic events that are open, heartfelt and fun.
Strategy
A host of Nordic and international came to the city over May Day Bank Holiday weekend, including Icelandic electronic dance collective GusGus, Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, DJ and producer Lindstrøm, UK electronic pioneers Wrangler, and John Grant himself. Radio3’s Late Junction recorded a day of unique collaborative improvisation from the event which saw a wave of creative energy descend upon Hull.
Results
North Atlantic Flux was a unique and spectacular meeting of John's friends, influences and collaborators alongside Curated Place's stable of commissions and regular creative partners. We transformed Hull into Reykjavik-on-Humber for a magical weekend that pushed boundaries and expectations. Already regarded as one of the stand out events of Hull2017 we're now developing a three-year development plan to build on the huge success of North Atlantic Flux as a headline legacy to the City of Culture year showcasing Hull as the UK’s Nordic city.
The festival attracted audiences of 4,000 people and received excellent four and five-star reviews in local and national press.
