This year, our goal has been to create longstanding relationships with local groups. We worked alongside Spring Community Hub to host activities with the young people who attend their centers and raise money at the festival. Click the link below for more information on our Charity partner.
A pillar of the communities local to Burgess Park, Spring Community Hub are a crisis support service offering a range of wrap-around services including Debt Advice, Welfare Benefit Advice, Housing and Immigration Support, Training courses, Business Advice, Holiday and After-school provision, Women’s groups, Food Bank and a Social Supermarket. We provide translation services to ensure our charity guests feel understood and supported.
As well as meetings with the local community, this year, we have explored other ways to engage through culture. Working with Spring Community Hub, we have tapped into their holiday program to host workshops that relate to music festivals.
Music has long been part of the fabric of South London, and we’re committed to supporting the next generation of talent. To do this, we’re hosting DJ workshops for 5 to 7 young people from Southwark. The lessons will be led by a DJ from London across and hosted in the local area. These workshops will take place during the autumn/winter half-term. Please see the details below:
We have initiated a mentoring scheme for an on-site paid runner across the festival, supporting our Operations and Production teams during the live weekend. In addition, we have implemented consistent mentoring and management across a six-month period to support the experience they gained on-site.
As well as providing a space for the DJs of the future, we want to celebrate South London’s rich history in the arts. We’ve been working with local children who attend the Samuel Lewis Centre to make a piece of art that shows what music means to them. Three of these were on display this year on the green steelshield fence during the build, live and de-rig. The aim is to make further pieces each year, celebrating different themes, and growing our catalogue of artwork.