Statement of Purpose
Hampstead Summer Festival
Background
The Hampstead Summer Festival has been running since 2011. It was founded by 4 residents of Hampstead, one of whom was a Councillor for the ward. It showcases what Hampstead has to offer, bringing in business to local shops and cafes, providing a lovely day out for the community, whilst raising funds for local charities. It does not make any profit and is not a registered charity. All the income after costs is immediately distributed to charity. Since its inception the Festival has grown and matured.
Events
The Festival started with one event – The Big Fair in Heath Street.
This consisted of about 100 stalls of food and crafts, a music stage with local bands, a sport zone, an art marquee and other attractions.
More events were added over time – first the Art Fair became a separate event by Whitestone Pond - and the Festival now consists of an exhibition of local art in the street, an Art Fair, a Children’s’ Art Competition, an exhibition of new pictures of Hampstead Heath, 4 open-air performances of a Shakespeare play, a Family Garden Party, and the finale, the Big Fair in Heath Street.
Attending the events is free to the public. The only events which are not, are the drama performances where the actors are paid, and the performances are ticketed in advance.
(These events are not supported by public funds.)
Funding and Support
The Festival is supported by Camden Council who have given a grant to the Festival every year and are highly supportive, as well as local businesses sponsoring the publicity or individual aspects of the Festival.
In 2023 one of the events also received a Mayor’s Community Weekend Grant. We are also greatly helped by the City of London who give permission for some of the events to be held in the beautiful garden of Keats House Museum, next to the library.
The HSF starts the year with a few pounds in the bank account. Income is then derived from stallholder bookings and sponsors, and, within a few days of the last event, all the net income is distributed between the charities.
Charity Beneficiaries
The Founder members of the Committee meet to agree which charities to support each year.
For the last 10 years the two beneficiaries of the Festival have been Hampstead School of Art and Keats Community Library, but they do not take it for granted that they will be chosen.
Both are registered charities with a strong local base providing high quality services to the community.
The Library for example is a self-financing community library, taking over after Camden Council closed Hampstead’s public library.
Hampstead School of Art has an extremely high reputation for the quality of teaching, as well as providing free classes for underprivileged and disabled members of the community.
The charities are very active participants in the running of the Festival.
Who Runs it?
There are currently 4 permanent committee members and two invited Committee members from the chosen charities.
The Chair of the committee is Els Bauer (Tel : 07973 305 494 els@stellalange.co.uk) and she is the main point of contact for stallholders, suppliers etc.
Other committee members are:
Ali Nathan, Anne Ward and Daniela Miteva.
Hampstead School of Art is represented by Isabel Langtry, Principal of the School, and Keats Community Library is represented by Victoria Joel, a Trustee of the library.
The Committee meets fortnightly in January and February then, after Easter, weekly until the end of the Festival. Between July and December the Committee rests.
At each meeting there is a report on the finances given by the Chair and then each committee member reports on the progress of their own activities. Agenda items would be, as an example
• Finances and agreed expenditure
• Sponsors
• Grant applications
• Premises Licence, security, police contact
• Road closure, parking suspensions, toilets
• First aid, rubbish collection, signage
• Booking of equipment and attractions for each event
• Stallholder bookings and logistics
• Publicity
• Staffing for each event
Volunteers and staffing
The Committee members invite friends and family to help at the events and the charities provide volunteers and staff members. First Aid and Security are provided by professionals and the police usually like to walk the events, mainly just to be seen. A volunteer with DBS clearance is responsible for lost children. Volunteers are in contact via walkie talkies.
Responding to current events
Over time we have had to respond to changing conditions e.g barriers to stop vehicles entering the Big Fair, during COVID closely monitoring the numbers of visitors, not advertising too widely to avoid overcrowding etc. Contact with the Council and Police is vital.