The Shepton Mallet Digital Arts Festival (also known as the Shepton Digi Fest) is a British annual public arts festival and creative industry showcase based in the Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 town of Shepton Mallet

Shepton Mallet

Shepton Mallet is a small rural town and civil parish in the Mendip district of Somerset in South West England. Situated approximately south of Bristol and east of Wells, the town is estimated to have a population of 9,700. It contains the administrative headquarters of Mendip District Council...

 at venues including Kilver Court.

The Festival was founded in 2009 and marked its third year with a three-day programme of events from 6 to 8 October 2011.

The 2011 festival featured contributions from Merlin Crossingham, the creative director of Aardman Animation's Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit

Wallace and Gromit are the main characters in a series consisting of four British animated short films and a feature-length film by Nick Park of Aardman Animations...

, Aardman model maker Jim Parkyn, film composer William Goodchild

William Goodchild

William Goodchild is a composer, orchestrator and conductor who produces music for film, television and the concert hall.-Biography:...

, Natural History film-maker Paul Appleby, Icon Film's

Icon Films

Icon Films is an award winning British independent television production company that produces factual programmes for broadcast by networks both in the UK and US...

 Dominic Weston and camera workshops from award-winning director of photography Jeremy Humphries.

The festival describes itself as "The South West Showcase of New Film, Photography & Performance" and states its aims as connecting young talent in the digital arts with established businesses and professionals and showcasing digital creative talent in the whole of the South West

South West England

South West England is one of the regions of England defined by the Government of the United Kingdom for statistical and other purposes. It is the largest such region in area, covering and comprising Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. ...

, including Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 and Bath.

2011 also saw the festival's first engagement with the gaming industry, linking up with Edinburgh Interactive and Sean Dromgoole of industry research company GameVision.

The festival is non-profit, and is supported by the Arts Council

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 Open Innovation partners South West One, IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, Plymouth University and Somerset County Council

Somerset County Council

Somerset County Council is the county council of Somerset in the South West of England, an elected local government authority responsible for the most significant local government services in most of the county.-Area covered:...

; Shepton Mallet Town Council and a number of other public and industry bodies.