Last weekend saw the first ever Festival Congress Awards take place at a sold-out ceremony in Cardiff’s Portland House run by The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). The conference was a combination of keynote speeches, workshops, showcases, awards and the obligatory after party.

The good news is that following a number of difficult years the independent festival scene is in good health, with most festivals seeing audience levels increasing, however it was evident that there is no room for complacency. The two day gathering also gave the delegates the opportunity to learn about the success of festivals around the world as they met to network, learn and celebrate. The congress featured keynote speaker Jude Kelly and speeches from high-profile figures of the industry such as Martin Elbourne, Stuart Galbraith and Alison Wenham.

Photo: Jo Haycock photography

Friday evening saw the awards ceremony, hosted by Ben Challis and featured an introduction by Huw Stephens and Bethan Elfyn (BBC Radio Wales). Thankfully the ceremony was short and amusing, winners included: The Arcadia Spider, The Bestival Mirror Ball and Rob Da Bank for The Outstanding Contribution Award, James Goodall (Count of Ten) for unsung hero and Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip for ‘Artist for the Audience’.

Dan Le Sac, said: “We are honoured to win this award. We’ve spent the last 8 years together planning shows because we love gigging, so to be recognised for that is truly wondrous! The cherry on the cake is that the award comes from the AIF - the independent festival scene is hugely vibrant in the UK and plays a massive part in keeping the music industry alive.”

AIF vice chair, John Rostron, said: "What a way to kick off the first ever Festival Congress Awards, with some terrific winners and plenty of good fun in the mix. The fact there are winners here who aren't even a part of the AIF, yet have been nominated and voted for by our membership, demonstrates the great spirit of support for the sector, which runs throughout the AIF. Our festivals LOVE festivals, and there's a lot of love for these worthy winners."

There were also showcase performances from talented emerging Welsh music acts Baby Queens and Gabrielle Murphy, in connection with the AIF’s exciting partnership with the BBC’s Horizons scheme. Bethan Elfyn also introduced us to emerging talent such as Houdini Dax, Swnami, Climbing trees, Gabrielle Murphy, The People The Poet to name a few.

Friday saw a packed room for the thorny subject of Artists Exclusivity, and concern that the majors are tying more artists into exclusivity deals. No surprises that the panel believed that exclusivity deals were a bad thing for the independent scene, but more importantly for the artist siting the great success of Catfish & The Bottlemen and Royal Blood who were playing festivals throughout the summer. There were calls for greater collaboration between festivals to attract artists to playing multiple festivals in a single weekend, where there was no direct competition between events e.g. Tramlines & The Secret Garden Party.

Saturday saw an interesting feature of the ‘We Love The Audience’ Breakout Session where they invited ‘festival goers’ unfortunately the general nature of the questions posed by the moderator resulted in rather bland responses. The only area of debate seemed to be about the need for punters to have access to WiFi so they could share their experience on social media!

The second part of the workshop focussed on drug use at festivals, it was refreshing to hear that despite popular belief drug problems at festivals was relatively low. There was also evidence that events that have sniffer dogs at the entrance result in pre loading which can often results in an increase in people needing medical attention.

One of the frustrations of attending festival conferences is the inordinate amount of time devoted to cashless systems, and so it was at the Festival Congress. Cashless payment maybe popular in the US and some parts of Europe but only a couple of UK festivals adopted it last year, with only a few considering it for 2015. 

Another informative session was The session of Mind-Blowing Amazement & Imagination with guest speakers Pip Rush & Bertie Cole (Arcadia Spectacular), Chris Tofu (Continental Drifts), Nick Fraser (Tim Peaks) & Patrick O'Mahony (New Substance). The session covered the ideas behind and the building of the 50 ton Arcadia spider with jet engine eyes, currently on route to Thailand. The building of the Bestival Guinness Book of Records breaking Disco Ball and the challenges of keeping the pressure just right within the inflatable structure. The idea of falling stars from the sky which turned into a reality at this year's Secret Garden Party when five-thousand LED synthetic sycamore shaped helicopters were dropped 800-feet above the crowd.

Forklift & Faeries was a lively session regarding hosting outdoor events with temporary structures and large crowds, with potential risks to the safety of the public, crew and artists. A number of crew had been injured in 2014 and the suitability of the type of equipment used was discussed. A new survey has also shown that a number of incidents could be prevented if downtime between shifts was promoted as accidents can be down to fatigue. 

As With the festivals the AIF represents they got most things right, with a few adjustments next year it promises to be even better.

Full list of winners:

The Outstanding Contribution Award – Rob da Bank

Supporter of Emerging Talent Award – 2000 Trees

New Festival on the Block – Fire in the Mountain

Silver Service Award – Goan Seafood Company

Unique Festival Site – Festival No.6

Live Act of the Year – Catfish & the Bottlemen

Artist for the Audience – Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip

Mind-Blowing Spectacle Award – The Arcadia Spider

Smart Marketing Campaign of the Year – Bestival Mirror Ball

Random Act of Kindness Award – End of the Road audience: Festival Wood

Culture & Tourism Award: Forward Thinking Local Authority – Dorset County Council

Friendliest Security Staff - Showsec

Festival Blogger of the Year – Shell Zenner

Emmet Brown Award – Shambala Festival: Fuel Efficient Technology

Festival Venue of the Year – End of the Road: The Garden Stage

Unsung Hero – James Goodall

The Festival Congress is presented by AIF and supported by the Major Events Unit of the Welsh Government and the British Council.