29 July 2010

An interview with the organisers of the Secret Garden Party

In November 2008, Toxin interviewed the founder and Head Gardener of the Secret Garden Party, Fred Fellowes. SGP has been putting on a festival every summer since 2004, and since we've always heard brilliant feedback about it each time from our friends, we decided we had to pick the brains of the person behind it all, who modestly says with regards to the origin of SGP: "it seemed like a good idea at the time!"

Words – Steph Robinson
Pics – Will Poole

The history of how Secret Garden Party began is described a little on the official website, but could you give us a more detailed, personal story of how SGP came to be?

In 2003 we threw a small 'garden party' for 800 people over a day and a night to launch an associates production company. After the dust settled and the faint of heart had fled I realised that the Secret Garden Party had somehow been born by default; having worked in events and production for four years, it was the only thing to my name.

So in 2004 we threw up a scaffolding stage and announced our intentions to throw a three day festival. After running the artist liaison, production, stage managing and most other things single handed I almost had a nervous breakdown, but was offered some relief in that it seemed the Garden Party had somehow been born.

What was the original motivation behind starting up the SGP? Do you think this has stayed true to the present day?

It’s hard to pinpoint an origin of the Garden Party, it happened first because, to plagiarise a quote, 'it seemed like a good idea at the time!"

But the underlying motivation for keeping going has to be the sheer joy all of the team share for creating a good party and a desire to apply that to a genre that we thought was stagnant.

How difficult did you find it to start up a festival, which were the hardest areas?

As no-one told us it would be difficult we only realised what we had taken on after the second SGP - I think the hardest part was keeping going after what we felt was a disappointing year in 2006.

Where do you intend to take SGP in the future, in what direction?

We are looking to keep the event moving towards more participation - maybe in the future we will just act as mere curators to an event designed and executed by the public.

How do you feel this year's SGP went? What was your personal highlight?

We are, rightly I think, very proud of what everyone created this year – my personal highlight, other than the pirate ship, has to be the crowning of the "King of the Daves" – the winner of a grand festival-wide competition between – yup, you guessed it – all the people there called Dave.

How do you think this summer's festival season went in general?

I think the last two years have been very hard on a lot of events, but I think this year showed one thing above all else; the rise of the independents. Events such as The Glade, Bestival and Lovebox all showed real form and a true alternative to the hulking behemoths of V Festival, Reading and the like.

What was your own personal highlight of the summer festival season?

As unpatriotic as this might sound, it was leaving England and flying to the Nevada desert for the Burning Man festival!

How do you think 'alternative' festivals like SGP and others will fare in the future? Will they be unable to avoid becoming more popular, more mainstream?

It's hard to predict how other people events will fare as everyone responds differently; some I'm sure will end up going mainstream, but that's not the only way. The SGP, as ever, will wind its own idiosyncratic way regardless.

What do you think is the key to success for this type of festival, such as SGP?

Originality. Doing something different and offering a service that larger events simple can't do. When you are unable to compete with the majors on line-up (due to budget and exclusion clauses) you need to move the fight to areas where they don't have those advantages.

What sort of new aspects can we expect to see at SGP 2009?

Well, that would be telling! But the whole event (as every year) is being overhauled, re-examined & redesigned, so who knows!

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