York Council

York BID

The Arts Council of England

A historic city of over 200,000 people, brimming with culture, landmarks and art, York has historically always been a cultural hub. However, one aspect of the City has been neglected in recent years - the city's music and live events space. For such a large city, York does not have an urban music festival and its current independent live music venues live hand-to-mouth on a monthly basis. Therefore, the council has put forward funding for an event to bring these under-utilised venues to light.

 

Originally a brief that didn't quite make it to my University Final Major Project, I revisited this project in 2023 as a challenge - How much could i complete of this forgotten brief in 1 single day? 9am till 5pm.

The solution? 'In the walls' - A 3 day inner-city festival across the city's venues to drive future footfall to independent venues. The name generated from both York's historic outer walls, the boundary of the city centre, and the concept of people gathering to enjoy culture 'in the walls' of a local venue. The festival champions local, emerging talent and artists of varying backgrounds. With both free and paid-wristband events, the event is open to all to provide anyone a platform to perform.

 

The branding of the festival was created so that once the initial festival had gone ahead the branding, poster templates and graphics could then be used by independent venues themselves to advertise gigs under the 3 guises - Music in the walls, Comedy in the walls or, Culture in the walls. This helps support local venues by providing design resources with no cost and creates a umbrella of associated events which in future can become synonymous with York and talented performers.