Context
Destination CQ Business Improvement District works to promote and develop Cathedral Quarter as a place where Business, Arts, Culture and Hospitality combine to make it a must visit destination in Northern Ireland.
Festival of Fools is the largest festival of its kind on the island of Ireland and brings the streets of the Cathedral Quarter to life with circus, spectacle, street theatre and comedy.
Challenge
We have been working together to strengthen the connection between local businesses, animate the streets of Cathedral Quarter and offer moments of shared joy, inspiration and creativity to individuals, families and organisations. This approach is needed because the Cathedral Quarter is well known for its legendary hospitality and cultural offerings, however the attraction of the area is often perceived as being only pub/club/alcohol based.
To address this, our programme has been designed to provide an attractive programme of family-friendly arts activity that is itself accessible whilst also demonstrating to local businesses the potential spending power of families. In parallel to this, we are capturing real examples of how vibrant and colourful animation of our outdoor spaces is very good for local business and illustrating a range of other ways that CQ levy payers can benefit from and support the local arts sector – such as through team building programmes, showcase events and more.
"It was a pleasure and an education working with the Festival of Fools team, they are very creative, professional and crucially patient, taking time to incorporate our agenda into their programme. They are the embodiment of the idea that Arts & Business can combine for the mutual benefit of each other and the wider community/area".
Damien Corr, Destination CQ BID Manager
Solution
We quite literally took the message to the streets and to the businesses in Cathedral Quarter. The creativity, colour and spectacle delivered by Festival of Fools (and Festival of Ghouls) ticked all the boxes satisfying both families and businesses to a very high degree.
At Halloween a full programme of activity was offered inside local arts venues and along the pavements outside local hospitality businesses. The streets were animated, the customers engaged, dwell time extended and new audiences captured. The artists benefitted from additional work and visitors and residents alike were engaged, inspired and in awe of the skills on show whilst local businesses benefitted from the income.
Throughout the year Festival of Fools have built partnerships to offer team building workshops and invited businesses to events that showcase the range and quality of local artists’ work. These help to foster and develop new mutually beneficial partnerships between the levy payers and Festival of Fools.
Results
Our work is ongoing but for now we can confidently say Festival of Fools/Ghouls provided rich, varied and vibrant animation of the CQ BID area. This activity led to higher footfall (87% of our audience members in May 2022 came to the CQ specifically to see Festival of Fools), inspired audiences and happy customers. 94% of our audience described their experience as ‘fun’, 76% as ‘joyful’ and 72% said ‘it brings people together’.
“Really wonderful event for the whole community. It has inspired my teenage son to begin circus classes which will help him meet others.” Audience Member, 2022
“Working with CQ BID has enabled us to offer local artists more work, particularly at what would have otherwise been quieter times of the year. In turn, their work has reached new audiences and prompted new conversations, connections and opportunities for people of all ages. It has also helped us to build stronger relationships with other local businesses and we are seeing benefits already in terms of engagement, audience discounts, free room hire and more. Based on our experience to date we expect these things to continue to develop and grow over the years to come. We’re excited to take the next step and thank Arts & Business NI for helping us to get started.”
Jenna Hall, Chief Executive, Festival of Fools