About Us

1. Introduction

Galtres Parklands Festival has always included a music and dance programme as a core part of its offering, and now the event has grown substantially in size and status we are finding large numbers of bands and musicians wanting to play at our Festival - more than can be fitted into our programme. This policy has been prepared in order to help us decide which to book

2. General objectives

Through our festival we want to create a platform for emerging bands and artists, providing an opportunity to play to a large audience and perhaps through a state-of-the-art sound system. We also want to expose people to a high quality programme of live music and dance, including young people whose experience of music may otherwise be largely confined to commercial pop and TV talent shows such as X-Factor. We consider that the engagement of a talented original artist with a festival audience is something very special.

3. Specific objectives

All of the artists we book should satisfy the quality criteria outlined below and at least one other of the following objectives. The programme in its totality needs to satisfy all of these objectives. There needs to be a balance between each of these objectives.

3.1 Profile bands

1. We need to book carefully-chosen profile bands to attract sufficient people to our event to make it commercially viable - these will be named prominently in marketing activity

2. The profile bands are intended also to boost the Festival's status, so that people want to come to it even if they are not particular fans of the profile bands -they take it seriouslyThe profile bands will also attract less well-known bands, who will want to support them, and who will play for free/expenses

3. The profile bands should appeal to our core demographic - ie 25-50 with families

4. The profile bands should be broadly appealing in their style of music - eg pop not punk. They should be proper musicians playing mostly original material, not cover bands or party bands.

5. Unlike many larger festivals, we don’t want to book large numbers of profile bands – just headliners. We wish to reserve budget to fund smaller bands and participatory elements.

3.2 Quality

1. We wish to develop the Festival’s reputation for delivering a high quality music and dance programme which showcases talented musicians and artists

2. We should vet all acts before booking them – preferably watching them live – otherwise video or audio recordings

3.3 Diversity

1. We want the styles of music and dance to be broad and diverse, representing the full spectrum of genres.

2. We specifically want to avoid a programme comprising a series of similar-sounding pop or rock bands on the main stage, or a series of similar-sounding acoustic acts on the acoustic stage. We should get away from the idea of one being more important and the other just being a place for acoustic acts.

3. We want the programme to be challenging, exposing people to new forms of music and dance, especially drawing on world music influences

4. We want the programme to appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds

Specifically, the music programme should reflect the following:

Classical music (Art music), Traditional music; Popular music, Blues, Country, Electronic, Folk, Heavy metal, Hip hop, Jazz, Reggae, Ska, Rock, Punk, World music

Performances of different types of dance should be included in the programme, as well as bands which encourage audience dance such as Salsa bands or ceilidh bands

3.4 Ambition

1. We want to provide a platform for artists which have the ambition to develop themselves and to go places – whether emerging or already established

2. We’re less interested in bands which show little activity, or which play largely the same sets year on year

3. Signs of ambition which we should look for might include new recordings, performance dates, and promotional activity (including their website, SoundCloud, Facebook)

3.5 Community

1. Our Festival in general is all about creating an event for the local community and involving local businesses and suppliers – such as local food producers and breweries – and we similarly wish to engage the local community of musicians and artists. We want them to feel a sense of involvement in and ownership of the Festival, for them to come with their families and friends, and for the event to be an important event in their annual calendar.

2. In practice that may mean sometimes booking a local band which may not be quite as good as a band from further afield

3 By 'local' we mean first the areas around York, Easingwold and Helmsley - YO1, YO61 & YO62. Secondly York and North Yorkshire. Thirdly Yorkshire as a whole. Generally we wouldn’t book any bands from outside Yorkshire other than the small number of profile bands to headline, if necessary.

3.6 Originality

1 We wish to encourage original creativity and songwriting, and expect most performances to comprise a high proportion of original material

2. We are also particularly interested in performers who deliver something unique and different, rather than formulaic.

3.7 Participation

1. We like the idea of musicians and artists engaging with audiences – before, during or after their performance – such as running a songwriting session, drumming workshop or dance class.

2. We also like the idea of performances extending beyond the stages and into the arena, whether scheduled or ad-hoc

3.8 Entertainment

1. Without compromising the quality or originality objectives, we want the music and dance programme to be highly entertaining.

2. We need to strike a suitable balance between some of the more highbrow and challenging objectives, and the more basic hope that everyone has a really good time.