Placemaking Reader Development
Aye Write Audience Development
Placemaking
Reader
Development
155 achieved for the city. Information displays were used throughout the Mitchell Library and between events to inform the audience about the festival’s reader development efforts, and in particular about the Wee Write! Children’s Book Festival, to which audience members were encouraged to donate via SMS message.
The three drivers
Even as attempts were being made by the Aye Write! team and Glasgow Life to grow the festival audience, innovative ways of sustaining and progressing reader
development and placemaking were being woven into the new model. Aye Write!
author events were programmed across the city in locations outwith festival time and beyond The Mitchell. The hope of the team was this could help break down barriers to new audiences and give a higher profile to reading and writing across the city.
In 2016, in an attempt to further support reader development, create a wider socio-geographic reach for the festival, offset rising ticket prices and grow the festival audience, there was a small-scale trial of Community Ticketing, in which free tickets to a limited selection of Aye Write! events were made available to community groups through reading and literacy workers. It was challenging to the team to put
appropriate systems in place at short notice. Even so, this initiative was regarded as a success as, even with the distribution of free tickets, festival attendance and ticket income both increased by a significant amount.
For Aye Write! 2017, Community Ticketing was expanded to make 10% of tickets available for each event of the festival; even those projected to sell out. Aye Write! satellite events continued to take place across the city throughout the year, but serious issues with the fabric of some of The Mitchell Library venues meant much of the building was unavailable during the festival. As a result, the festival had to either scale back or break out into other city venues. The decision was taken to see this as an opportunity rather than a threat. For the first time, Aye Write! ran simultaneously across three venues: The Mitchell Library, The Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. By this point it was clear the festival had moved to a third working model, Figure 20, in which audience, reader development and
156 placemaking were intertwined and each could play a part in driving the success of the festival.
Figure 21: Three Drivers
Ticketing is one of the instruments of festival planning with a significant, direct effect on audience numbers and demographic. Pitching the ticket prices too high, or too low, could spell financial disaster. Every member of the PAG could
recount anecdotes where ticket price is or is perceived to be a barrier to some people, and this is borne out by reports from members of the Community Learning Team, Community Library staff, and has been stated in interview by publishing
professionals, writers and book group members. One former librarian who has experience of active involvement with promoting the festival, lists ticket price as one of a range of potential barriers to participation:
I mean the ticket price £9 that's a barrier for some people. A building like this, is a barrier for some people. The bus fare can be a barrier. But there must be some people who even if you laid all that on for them they still wouldn't come -
Audience Development Reader
Development
Placemaking
157 because they think that's not for them.229
The issue of barriers to attending or participating in Aye Write! is a complex one which can take many forms particular to each person. A reduction in ticket pricing alone will not solve the challenges of participation, but it is clearly a high-profile factor expressed as an area of concern by community workers, authors, publishing industry professionals, librarians, and active readers and writers who are non-attenders at the festival, such as those discussed in the following chapter.
Aye Write!’s own evaluation process does not capture this view. The
completed customer survey forms suggest there is no significant issue around ticket pricing. This is contrary to the views of community-facing library and literacy staff as in the quote from Mary Greenshields (MG) above. However, as indicated by the demographic of survey respondents earlier in this chapter, most of those who completed customer survey forms are over 45 years old, received their festival programme in The Herald/Sunday Herald, and around 50% have the means to travel to the festival from outside Glasgow. This suggests they are likely to have more disposable income than the typical target of community-based reader development work.
229 Interview: Mary Greenshields at Aye Write! Festival 22/4/15
158 Figure 22: Aye Write! 2015 Customer Survey Results – Ticket prices
When asked to describe Aye Write! ticket prices on a scale of Very Fair to Very Unfair, 92% of respondents say Aye Write! ticket prices are either Fair or Very Fair. This is not necessarily a surprising statistic since those who regard the ticket price as Very Unfair, or Unfair, are unlikely to buy a ticket and therefore will not be in a position to complete a customer survey form. This simple fact is key to one of the big challenges for Aye Write! – the success of the festival in the eyes of those who attend is not necessarily success in terms of the aims and ethos of the festival.
The financial position of the festival at the end of 2015 was such that it was imperative to not only break even, but to address some of the shortfall from previous years. With this pressure on the finances of the festival, the delicate balance of the dual aims of the festival was challenged. Ticketing is one issue which illustrates some of these challenges in a very practical way. Until 2015, Aye Write! operated a flat ticket pricing structure; tickets for every event were priced the same, whether it was a well-known author in a sold-out theatre, or a debut writer of a niche book in one of the smaller rooms. In part, this was driven by a desire to maintain a spirit of equality across the festival – that each author was of equal value without respect to their celebrity or track record of success. In parallel with this, each author was paid a
VERY FAIR, 29%
FAIR, 63%
UNFAIR, 8%
VERY UNFAIR, 1%