First Fortnight Festival 2021- 10th Anniversary- Submission Call Out

Are you a community champion and/or a creative spark?

Please note the below callout has now closed, we are very excited about what lies ahead for January! Full programme will be announced in late November. First Fortnight Submission Call Out Are you a community champion and/or a creative spark? First Fortnight is Ireland’s Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival and as such we endeavour to reach all communities through callouts such as this. However, we need YOU! First Fortnight challenges mental health prejudice and stigma through arts and cultural action and programmes events that create spaces for unscripted conversations around mental health to happen. In 2021, we will be celebrating our 10 anniversary! This special edition of the festival will revisit the past, looking at the changes across the artistic and mental health landscape of Ireland- while also exploring the future and asking how we can collectively continue to push social and creative boundaries? We are open to new fledgling ideas ready to take flight but are also supportive of remounting pieces of work/events that have flown with great success in the past. If you have an idea for a proposal that you would like to organise as part of First Fortnight Festival 2021, please submit below!   Do you want to host a pottery workshop to make teacups while chatting mental health and drinking from premade teacups? (The other way wouldn’t work very well!) Does your community want to host a spoken word and music evening in a local café? Do you want to hold a film screening with a post-show discussion? Have you created a new piece of theatre? Do you want to have a dance workshop in your local MENS shed? What mental health topic do you think is important to explore in your community? Please view our artistic policy here We will be keeping the following in mind while reviewing submissions- is it… -Reflective of society and current mental health challenges? -Representative of Ireland and/or you community today? -Accessible? -A new voice/challenge we’ve never heard before or explored previously? -Supported by the local community? -Challenging stigma? -Adequately connected to mental health/artistic themes? When it comes to – ·         We are open to programming artists from Ireland and abroad, new and established. We want our artists to be representative of today’s society.   -Audiences ·         The festival promotes the broader mental health experience, therefore we are looking for submissions that speak to specific demographics/experiences under the festival umbrella. Your piece will inherently appeal to a particular audience group or speak to a specific experience and we’d love to hear about it. ·         Does the piece have the potential to empower or further isolate a community group? Is it integrative or could it become integrative? -Budget Please note First Fortnight has a limited budget and capacity so we are unable to programme all events but fully encourage mental health arts events around the country throughout the year. ·         Submissions with a budget above €500 will be expected to demonstrate other sources of funding and/or partners. We say this as if you have an amazing idea but it costs €5000, we face a Sophie’s Choice dilemma between programming 1 or 10 great events for the festival! ·         Your event if programmed will be included in our overall marketing strategy but we’d like you to demonstrate how you plan to promote this event locally/its respective target audience. ·         We work with venues throughout the country but please let us know if you have identified a  particular venue and include venue rental costing or flag any benefit in kind support offered by venue. ·         The budget must include income and expenditure and expected box office where event has entry fee. ·         Items often featured in the past budgets include artist fee, director/co-ordinator fee, venue rental, rehearsal rental, employer’s liability insurance, tech, travel and accommodation, materials, photographer/videographer fee. Note not all of these will be relevant to everyone! -Timeline                 Our Timeline o   Our original submission call-out deadline was 19 April 5pm Irish time. Please note in light of the current situation, everyone’s circumstances and the desire to reduce stress even just a little for people right now, THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MAY 3RD 5pm. Submissions received after our submission date will not be considered. o   Our announcements will be in mid July. This timeline gives us time to review all submissions and explore additional funding opportunities to help increase the amount we can programme. o   Our festival launch is the end of November. o   Our festival runs from the 1 January. Your Timeline in the application o   It doesn’t need to be filled with details but this part lets us know that you have a realistic plan. o   We are open to events happening before the festival, so long as the culmination of the project is presented in the festival. -Supporting materials o   CVs/Biographies of key people involved- Essential o   All film proposals must be accompanied with a screener.- Essential o   All theatre proposals must be accompanied by a finalised/most recent edition of script/recorded performance.- Essential o   Letters of support are a bonus but not a necessity.- Bonus o   A sample of existing Images/recordings of previous work- Essential o   Marketing/PR materials/reviews for proposal if pre-existing/previous work- Bonus o   Your child &/ vulnerable adult safeguarding policy if you are working with either group- Essential     Pinky Promises:   The Champion commits to:  ·         Providing The Event and being responsible for managing all aspects and costs in relation to The Event including fees to all artists and personnel and all logistical, technical production and presentation items/costs. ·         Managing the responsibility of obtaining all relevant copywrite and permissions in relation to use of intellectual property for all aspects of The Event. ·         Keeping to the timeframes and deadlines that are essential for the FF machine to run smoothly e.g. providing requested materials for festival programme. ·         Endeavouring to make themselves available for PR opportunities. ·         Giving a shout out to FF AKA crediting FF on the event/project as co-producer/supporter/mutually agreed credit title. ·         Being part of a team with us. #goteam   First Fortnight commits to: ·         Providing a platform and inclusion in our print and digital programme. ·         Shouting from the rooftops about you AKA Endeavouring to provide as much PR support as possible through the festival. ·         Usain Bolt Payment AKA Paying you promptly upon receiving your invoice. ·         Helping Hand AKA Seeking volunteer support in your area to help support if needed. ·         Being part of a team with you. #goteam   To submit, please fill out this Google Form before the 3rd May 5pm Irish Time.   If it is not possible to complete the form due to accessibility issues, please contact info@firstfortnight.ie to make alternative submission arrangements.   Please note within this callout, First Fortnight is also looking for workshop facilitators. If you have a mental health themed workshop that gets people crafting, chatting, collaborating, colouring, dancing, drawing, juggling, jumping, singing, stitching, storytelling, yodelling, we’d like to hear from you. We often get queries from other venues and organisations looking for an event or workshop to hold as part of First Fortnight and we want to connect them with as many artists as we can to bring the festival and fun to every corner of the country! This year, from our callout, in addition to programming workshops ourselves, we will have a shortlisted group of workshop facilitators with ready made workshops to share with any and all looking to host an event.   Photo credit: Kieran Frost

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