Strawberries & Creem, which boasts one of the youngest festival organiser teams in the UK, is hitting its stride with a 10,000-strong visitor count and a line-up including autotune god T-Pain and acclaimed DJ ShyFX. The Haggis Farm, near Cambridge, based event is curated by the youngest festival team in the UK, with an average age of just 24.
Of these, only two members of staff are full time, the rest are juggling full-time jobs, or are still at University.
Despite their youthful facade, the team have previously secured decidedly high-calibre talent at previous events, including Wiley, Skepta, J Hus and Kano.
Co-founder Louise Young tells Access that the festival is continuing to meet its MO of
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celebrating the future, while championing heritage.
“ We aim to align the content and campaigns with our S & C mantra and make sure it is authentic as possible for our audience.
“ Being the same age as our audience, we know how we want to be spoken to, and we work with brands to come up with content and experiences that will resonate with our customers.”
As such, choosing who to work with has proved a big challenge.“ For the music festivals especially we are one big family who love what we do and care about it more than anything else.
“ It takes a lot of trust for someone, whether a supplier, volunteer or a crew member, to become part of that family.
“ Luckily I’ ve been able to retain a strong core team of suppliers
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Below: 2017’ s event |
“ We are one big family who love what we do” – Co-founder Louise Young
and crew, but I’ ve always had to learn when someone or a company doesn’ t quite fit with the festival. There are a lot of amazing individuals and suppliers out there but it doesn’ t mean that they are all 100 % suitable for the festival.”
This year, Young engaged in more delegation and streamlining on site with a shift in crew and suppliers.
“ I’ ve changed sites every year for four years, so it’ s amazing to stay on the same site for two years running.
“ It gives me a chance to perfect and refine the brand as well as improve efficiencies behind the scenes. We are already thinking of new ideas for engaging and creative content for next year but don’ t want to run before we can walk.”
Frustrations can abound in the festival game, and Young has learnt the importance of attention to detail.“ Communication and hard work are vital. The festival doesn’ t happen overnight, it takes a lot of planning and intricate detail that
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