Cottingham Springboard Festival is a free live music festival that takes place annually in the village of Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire

Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire

Cottingham is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies just to the north-west of the city of Kingston upon Hull...

, England.

History

The first Cottingham Springboard Festival was created as an afternoon and evening music event. It took place on 12 August 2006 in the Old Brewery Room of the King William IV public house in Cottingham.

In 2007 the festival was expanded to a full weekend, and in 2008 had spread to five venues. The success of the festival gave rise to a spin-off event Springboard Monthly, an evening based at the King William IVth showcasing new and upcoming acts which ran until 2011.

By 2010 the event was being held across six venues (The King William IV, The Blue Bell, The Duke of Cumberland, The Hallgate Tavern, The Cross Keys and The Railway Hotel) with eight amplified and managed stages and several open mic and busking areas. In 2011 The Black Prince venue joined in the festival, taking the place of the Railway Hotel, not involved for 2011.

Organisation and Ethos

Cottingham Springboard Festival is currently run by a team of organisers working independently of each other based in each of the venues, who work closely with the landlord/landlady/manager of the venue. This results in each venue having its own full schedule and opening and closing times in accordance with the particular venue's licensee.

The ethos of the festival is to promote live music while showcasing a broad and eclectic range of local and regional musicians along with guests from further afield, to the general public, without making a charge to enable it to be as accessible to everyone as possible. A promotional CD of a selection of acts is usually compiled and available at the festival.

Funding

The festival requires funds to cover advertising, equipment and administrative costs. In order to remain free to festival-goers, the festival relies wholly on support from the following sources:

• The performers, who waive their regular fees to perform for free at the festival
• Volunteering, which provides the sound technicians, compares, stage crews, a street team and road crew
• The individual venues, which cover the cost of the P.A. and technical equipment hire for the full festival period in respect of their venue and contribute to publicity costs
• Local companies providing sponsorship
• Organisations providing sponsorship in kind (a sound system and technical assistance was provided to Springboard by the Bose Corporation for one of its venues for the 2011 festival, and the Cottingham Times usually runs a promotional feature.
• Funding received, when applications are successful, from organisations that have so far included the Cottingham Parish Council, the Arts Council England
  Arts Council England
  Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
  
   the National Lottery
  National Lottery (United Kingdom)
  The National Lottery is the state-franchised national lottery in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man.It is operated by Camelot Group, to whom the licence was granted in 1994, 2001 and again in 2007. The lottery is regulated by the National Lottery Commission, and was established by the then...
  
   and EYEvents

Performers

The festival showcases on average around 200 acts each year, providing a platform for both talented new performers alongside the more experienced and well-known acts. At least one international act has also been showcased each year including performers from Canada, Senegal, Tasmania and Australia. Of particular note French-based American bluesman Adrian Byron Burns (Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings

Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings

Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings are a blues-rock band founded and led by former Rolling Stones bass guitarist Bill Wyman. Together with his lifelong musical partner Terry Taylor, The "Dirty Boys" duo produce, arrange and compose original material for the award winning band.The Rhythm Kings are known for...

) has been a frequent high-profile contributor to the event. At the 2009 festival the Blue Bell venue was compared by the Hull Blokes

Hull Blokes

The Hull Blokes are a writing collective based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, in the North East of England. They write and perform comedy and drama work, both for the stage and film.- History :...

 comedy collective. The 2010 festival was involved in the launch of a CD by a number of festival performers as part of the Larkin 25

Larkin 25

Larkin 25 was an arts festival and cultural event in Kingston upon Hull, England, organised to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of the poet and University of Hull librarian, Philip Larkin...

 project, which marked the 25th anniversary of the death of the poet Philip Larkin

Philip Larkin

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century...

. The 2011 festival also bills Ted Key, a prolific local performer well known from his time with The Housemartins

The Housemartins

The Housemartins were an English indie pop band that was active in the 1980s. Many of the Housemartins' lyrics were a mixture of Marxist politics and Christianity, reflecting singer Paul Heaton's beliefs at the time .-Formation:The band was formed in late 1983 by Paul Heaton and...

.