Festival Communications Management

As the re-launch of our festival approaches, we are looking for Festival Communications Management for a five-month period to oversee our public engagement in collaboration with our team of creatives.  This can be a hybrid role working from anywhere in the UK, with at least 2 days in our base in Dumfries, progressing to full time in January.

Our Festival runs across three main weekends in January, running from 17th January to 2nd February.

Our programme includes over 100 shows and events, including the largest Burns Night programme anywhere on the planet.    As well as our Burns content, we also curate Dumfries Carnival which opens the festival and Dumfries Fringe at the end of the festival which is delivered by 20 different partners.

You will work with our Leadership Team as well as our Designer and our Carnival Team who are working with more than 4,000 people across 50 different partnerships in schools and social organisations

Working alongside our external PR team, you will lead our interactions across our social assets, including our customer onboarding and partnership interaction.

Our festival is a multi-venue event delivered by a range of different third-party stakeholders as well as an internal Public Engagement team who deliver six months of creative learning and experience across one of the largest local authority areas in the UK.

This is a high-level role in a small organisation with a strong reach.  We are looking for someone creative who can hit the ground running and make an impact.  The role is relatively hands-on.

We are looking for someone who is capable of planning great content as well as being reactive to stories that emerge across our event.

We provide great working conditions, you will be working as part of our unique social co-operative where our community plays a leading role across our programmes, meaning you will be working with a range of different people.

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Main Deliverables

Content Creation

• Create interactive content across our brand assets that will engage the public in an imaginative way.
• Turn around Carnival content for our team of creatives who are capturing content in their partnership settings.
• Engage our audience using our brand tone of voice and react to social opportunities.

Interaction

• Lead our customer onboarding experience at point of sale to ensure our customers have the information they need.
• Lead on all public interactions ensuring that we respond to customer messaging efficiently.
• Support our volunteers by being based in our Box Office throughout January.
• Help to make our event inclusive and accessible to as wide an audience as possible.

Audience Development  

• Create listings for our events on local and national websites, including Facebook to help build an audience for our programme.
• Help us create a tone of voice for emerging markets like younger audiences who have never experience the event.
• Identify target markets for each event and create profiles for each show or events.
• Set up digital advertising where it is required.
• Lead on our region-wide print campaign across our membership, including our on-street messaging with our Site Team.

Destination Experience

• Renew our customer touch points across our digital platforms to ensure that our messaging is clear and concise, particularly for external visitors.
• Support our destination partners to maximise the opportunity the festival creates in the local economy by working collaboratively with them to amplify joint messaging.
• Lead our Table availability initiative with restaurant partners to identify where customers can eat in between shows.

Monitoring and Evaluation (Impact)

• You will lead our post festival feedback including our data capture for our audiences and stakeholders, pulling together our Impact Report and presenting this to our members and partners, identifying clear outcomes.
• You will pull together our media coverage report, highlighting successful strategies and making the case for future approaches.

Person Specification

Essential

• Previous experience of cultural, event or festival marketing.
• Campaign Planning experience in a similar role.
• Strong communication skills across all levels.
• Skilled in audience development or arts participation.
• Good working knowledge of social media and digital content.
• Be creative and experimental in your approach.
• Have a great sense of humour.
• Be prepared to work weekends and unsociable hours.

Desirable

• Some working knowledge of ticketing would be desirable.
• Knowledge of WordPress or website experience.
• Knowledge of Mailchimp is an advantage.
• Working with volunteers and a range of different stakeholders.

Terms and conditions

• This is offered as a freelance role of £14,000 (£200 per day for 70 days) which is spread over 5 months.
• Flexible and hybrid working for the right candidate and needs to be in Dumfries office at least two days per week, moving to full-time in January. We may be able to provide accommodation in January to support the right candidate.
• The role is subject to a six-week probationary period and monitored through weekly review sessions to identify areas of support.

To apply

• Please send us a covering letter on no more than 2 pages of A4 or three minutes max to programming@bigburnssupper.com
• Tell us about the experience you have in a similar role, and any areas where you would need more support.
• Tell us what we need to do to sustain strong public engagement with our festival brand.

Deadline is 25th August with interviews on 27th August

Role starts mid-September.

If you wish to discuss the role, please email graham@bigburnssupper.com for more information.

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