Based in the community…driven by public participation… We wanted this to be as true for creating the festival, as for attending the festival. We went out to meet with The Lewisham Young Mayor and Advisors group on November 10th. We met with them in a SMASHfestUK creative workshop, and it quickly became apparent why it was so important to get out and work with our core audience (14-19 year olds), in our core community. The inspiring group of 25 came up with loads of great ideas, and highlighted things that were really important to them.
There weren’t enough zombies, spaceships, aliens or UFOs. There weren’t any singing competitions. We needed well-known people from Lewisham involved with the festival.
All these ideas and suggestions have now been incorporated into the festival and lots of the group have signed up to become our first young people Co-Producers.
We’ll be back to work with the group again in the New Year!
