Festival of Chichester goes live!

Festival of Chichester went live at the weekend with a city-centre launch complete with jazz band and colourful costumes.

Members of Chichester Festival Youth Theatre donned animal costumes to distribute copies of the newly-printed Festival brochure in North Street and East Street.

Meanwhile, shoppers were treated to the mellow tunes of the Jazz Smugglers, an important part of the Festival’s very first programme.

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Festival chairman Phil Hewitt said: “It was a fantastic morning. After months of working behind the scenes on the festival, it was lovely for all of us to tell people about the brilliant programme that has come together for this summer.

“The Festival will run from June 15-July 14 with more than 200 events, and it was really gratifying to chat with people out and about. People seemed genuinely grateful that we have made sure that Chichester won’t go without a festival this summer; and from the response so far, I think we can already start looking forward to next year and beyond.

“John Winkler, who runs the various Jazz Smugglers groups, has been an enthusiastic supporter of our new Festival right from the start; it was terrific to have John and his musicians there at the very moment we went public.

“And we owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friends from the Youth Theatre. People thoroughly enjoyed receiving their brochures for the new Festival from animals including a zebra, a giraffe and a chicken! The youngsters, always fantastic ambassadors for the Youth Theatre, were fantastic ambassadors for the Festival too. They were totally into the spirit of the whole thing.

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“Thanks too to Thorntons who provided plenty of chocolate to make it even more of a party atmosphere!”

Brochures are available from places including Waterstones, the Chichester Observer offices and Chichester’s Tourist Information Centre. In the coming weeks, they will start appearing in many other places aside.

The brochure can also be viewed on the Festival website www.festivalofchichester.co.uk which is now live for booking. Tickets are also on sale at Chichester Tickets, Cloisters Shop, Cathedral Cloisters, Chichester, PO19 1PX or call 01243 813595.

Social media will be one of the keys to the success of this year’s very first Festival of Chichester.

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A busy team of five volunteers will be making sure that the Festival’s events go viral in the weeks leading up to the start of the Festival proper.

They are urging event organisers to:

1. Like the Festival of Chichester Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/FestivalOfChichester via your personal and business Facebook pages.

2. Share a link to the Festival of Chichester Facebook page with your personal Facebook friends or on your own business Facebook page.

3. Post about your event (any extra info or promotions that you’re running) on the Festival of Chichester Facebook page.

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4. Create an event on your own Facebook page and post a link to the event on the Festival of Chichester Facebook page.

5. Share the link to the Festival of Chichester Facebook page on your website, blogs, Twitter page or anywhere else online that you’re talking about your event.

6. Follow the Festival of Chichester Twitter page: https://twitter.com/FestOfChi from your personal and business Twitter page.

7. Share a link to the Festival of Chichester Twitter page with your Twitter followers.

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8. When you post about your event, copy in the Festival of Chichester Twitter handle: @FestOfChi in your Tweet.

9. Share the link to the Festival of Chichester Twitter page on your website, blogs, Facebook page or anywhere else online that you’re talking about your event.

The social marketing team are:

Katy Lassetter, otherwise known as Chichester Copywriter; ([email protected]); Rachel Soothill, director of BrightWord Communications ([email protected]); Felicity Masters, a community librarian working in the Chichester and Bognor area ([email protected]); Olivia Stevens, a freelancer in sales, marketing and social media management ([email protected]); and Diana Morgan, a social media marketer for two years ([email protected]).