The idea of having Regional Partners grew from discussions with the crew and general public who have made the annual trek to the Green Gathering Festival since it morphed from the remains of the late, lamented Big Green and moved to its current site in a beautiful wooded valley by the banks of the Severn in Chepstow. Green Gathering became a charity in 2014 and it’s wholly owned subsidiary company, Optimistic Trout Productions runs the entire event as a fundraiser for the charity.
This enables us to be exempt from VAT, keeping ticket prices as low as possible to maintain our focus on running an affordable, family friendly event. Our crew and ticket holders come from all over the country and many of them are involved in local organisations that share our aims but up until now we have not been able to devote the time to building a national network by making collective applications for grants and sponsorship that would benefit the Gathering as an annual event but would also support the development of more local projects.
This changed for the better during the dreary days of Lockdown, where the Arts Council for England (ACE) and the Welsh Office made grants available to recognise our national importance and to ensure we were able to emerge intact for this years long awaited Gathering in August. Our focus over the next few years is to work in partnership with organisations throughout the UK to promote the Green Creed at the regional and local level.
To become a recognised Regional Partner, you and yours should have the following attributes:
1. Share our core aims and objectives
2. Have a track record of local action
3. Be willing to act as a GG local information point
4. Be happy to be included as a beneficiary in our national funding and sponsorship applications
5. Be able to hold at least one public event per year from a short list that includes , amongst other contributions, skill workshops, best practice seminars, open studios, community action work parties etc.
6. Be able to identify a representative team of up to 3 of your members to benefit from free tickets to come to the Gathering
7. A contribution of £100 a year (tbc)
If you would like to know more about our plans for the Regional Partnership Scheme please email us.