Birr Festivals Collective
Birr Festivals Collective
The Birr Festival Season celebrates the essence of our town.
Running from May-November each year, it includes:
- Birr Festival of Music
- Scripts Ireland’s Playwriting Festival
- Birr Vintage Week and Arts Festival
- OFFline Film Festival
- Hullabaloo! Offaly’s Children’s Arts Festival
They, separately and collectively, are essential to the social and economic wellbeing of Birr, its hinterland and the county of Offaly.
A Shared Future for Festival Planning
In 2020, Birr 20:20 Vision CLG commissioned the report, Seeing The Beyond | Birr Festivals Planning for a Shared Future, with support from Offaly Local Development Company), to produce a set of recommendations to support sustainable festival development in Birr into the future.
One of the key opportunities identified was for all the Birr’s festivals to work collaboratively to address strategic goals in artistic development, audience engagement, and strengthening Birr’s position as an attractive and accessible cultural destination.
And, so the Birr Festivals Collective was born.
We are committed to taking a position of leadership through our collective values, actions, and ability to work cohesively and strategically.
Our Values
We are committed to taking a position of leadership through our collective values, actions, and ability to work cohesively and strategically.
Our collective approach is underpinned by the following set of values:
01
Quality
A commitment to providing artists and audiences with high-quality experiences throughout their engagement with the festivals in Birr; this means fair remuneration for artists and contributors, a safe environment for artists, crew, staff, volunteers and audiences, and excellent production and presentation standards.
02
Sustainability
To lead by example in adopting and implementing principles of sustainability in how events are produced and promoted; and to avail of the benefits and economies of scale that are possible through planned collaboration.
03
Accessibility
A commitment to ensuring that as many people as possible can engage with, and benefit from, the festivals in Birr.
04
Inclusion
A commitment to designing and producing events in Birr in ways that extend a welcome to as many people as possible, particularly to those whose circumstances mean that they are infrequent attenders at festivals and events.
05
Innovation
A commitment to adapting and changing the ways that we devise and produce our events sustainably and effectively in Birr (ranging from organisational arrangements and planning to programming, the use of technology and changed funding models).
06
Partnership/Collaboration
A commitment to thinking, planning, and working together, and with others, to increase our resilience and to broaden our resource base for creative programming.
Seeing The Beyond
Read it nowIn 2020, Birr 20:20 Vision CLG commissioned this report to produce a set of recommendations to support sustainable festival development in Birr into the future.
One of the key opportunities identified was for all the Birr’s festivals to work collaboratively to address strategic goals in artistic development, audience engagement, and strengthening Birr’s position as an attractive and accessible cultural destination.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Read it nowThe Birr Festivals Collective, via funding received from the Arts Council of Ireland’s Capacity Building Support Scheme, engaged a Marketing & Audience Development Consultant to develop this Digital Marketing Strategy.
It focuses on collective harnessing, developing and improving the digital infrastructure of each festival in order to maximise budgets, reach wider audiences and improve the regional and national profile of each festival.
Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit
Diversity and Inclusion ToolkitThe brand-new Diversity and Inclusion Toolkit for the Birr Festivals Collective was officially launched on February 13th.
Nothing About Us, Without Us is a collaboration between OFFline Film Festival and Offaly Local Development Company’s (OLDC) Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP) and is thanks to funding from the Arts Council’s Capacity Building Support Scheme.