Shelley Bennett - Festival PR

This weekend sees the launch of the 2009 Brighton Festival, a three week programme of theatre, music, art, dance and literary talks staged in venues across Brighton. It’s one of the UK’s biggest and most established cultural festivals, and with a Fringe, art festival and music convention running alongside it, Brighton really is one of the most exciting places to be in May.

Getting the main Brighton Festival up and running is a big task, and there’s a year round team of people that make it happen. PR is, of course, an important part of that. Shelley Bennett is the Brighton Festival’s Press & PR Manager, and we spoke to her to find out what communicating a major cultural festival involves, and to get the lowdown on a career in arts PR.

By Chris Cooke

Tell us a bit about your career, how did you get into arts PR?

I did a music degree and, following that, worked for an arts TV production company for two years. I then moved to a music publishing company where I worked in promotions, which is similar to PR in that it’s about building relationships with people and talking about events.

How did you become Press & PR Manager of the Brighton Festival?

I saw the job advertised in The Guardian and applied!

For those that don’t know about it, tell us about the Brighton Festival.

Brighton Festival is England’s leading mixed arts festivals. This is the 43rd year it’s been running, and we have the incredible Turner winning artist Anish Kapoor as our Guest Artistic Director. He’s worked with our a new Chief Executive, Andrew Comben, to take the festival to a whole new level this year. There is an outstanding programme of over 110 events over the 23 days, including 11 free outdoor events and 26 premieres and exclusives. Full programme details are on our website www.brightonfestival.org.

What does being Press & PR Manager for the Brighton Festival involve?

It primarily involves dealing with all national, international and regional press, including broadcast and web. It principally involves talking to people about specific events: placing interviews, organising previews and reviews, allocating press tickets, setting up launch events and then collating everything generated. The press office also produces podcasts for our website, a 10-minute film for the launch of the Festival, several printed supplements and a million other things that crop up.

How does the job differ from festival time to, say, the Autumn when the festival is some way off?

Our company runs the Brighton Dome venue as well as the festival, which means that when I’m not working on the festival itself I’m working on PR campaigns for that instead. Brighton Dome is a three space arts venue which includes the Concert Hall, the Corn Exchange and the Pavilion Theatre. Preparations for the Brighton Festival tend to start from November so there’s a lot of overlap between the two from then onwards, making the six months from December to the end of May extremely busy!

With a cross-genre programme of events, how do you decide which media to talk to?

It’s all about prioritising and timing. Depending on what the highlights of the programme are I will focus on different press. With a small team it’s not possible to cover all media so it’s a matter choosing who fits best and also releasing the right information at the right time. For example, monthly magazines have a much longer lead time so they always come first…

How do you go about PRing any shows you haven’t personally seen, or which haven’t even been created when the programme launches?

This is always a challenge, but in some ways it’s also the most interesting part of the job, as it’s the new commissions and productions that Brighton Festival is justifiably well known for. This year, for example, there is a brand new promenade production of Joe Orton’s ‘The Erpingham Camp’ on Brighton Pier, which has never been performed before. Because this is a brand new commission I personally speak with the company during the development stage and try to gain as much information as possible about what they have planned. I then make sure that I’m kept up to date on any changes along the way.

How do you engage with media, especially those who may not traditionally cover your events?

Goodness, that’s impossible to answer! It all depends on what we have in the programme and what I feel we can offer that will fit with their magazine/article/programme, but I would be sure to do my research and approach them within an appropriate timescale.

What are the best bits about your job?

The best bit of my job is when the festival finally starts and I get to see the amazing events that I’ve been talking about for months. Also, seeing people come to something and obviously enjoy it really does make it all worth while. Plus seeing our press cuttings folder getting very full is pretty satisfying too!

What are the worst bits?

It’s an extremely demanding role and there are never enough hours in the day.

What advice would you have for anyone wanting to work in arts PR?

It’s a job that requires dedication, so make sure you have a real passion for the arts. Then get some work experience, as that’s quite often a way in.

What are you most looking forward to about this year’s festival.

The involvement of Anish Kapoor has been amazing and I’m really excited to see all of his pieces, and the events connected with them, such as the performance of Rossini’s ‘Giovanna d’Arco’, which will be performed ‘on location’ so to incorporate Anish’s original artwork ‘Dismemberment Of Jeanne d’Arc’.

There are also a number of other events that I can’t wait to see. ‘Breaking News’ from German company Rimini Protokoll, partly because it’s their first visit to the UK; the ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’ story playtime to which I’m taking my nephew; and my classical fix will come in the form of the Philharmonia concert conducted by the wonderful Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Shelley on the web

Brighton Festival’s website