RAWFFEST, the Welsh Youth Arts Festival, is coming up fast! It’s going to be held in the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay this year and is full of amazing workshops, shows and art from Welsh young people.

In the second of our series counting down to the show, here’s an interview with one of the team publicising RawFfest!

Name: Fraser Dickson

Where you at? Cardiff as a Student – Originally from Llanelli

School/College/Uni/Job? Studying Marketing at Cardiff Metropolitan University

Are you a Placemaker?
No, I’m working with RawFfest as a marketing intern. I run the marketing activities with RawFfest working on strategy, tactics etc. As well as helping the Placemakers come up with fun ideas to market the Festival.

What are you most looking forward to as part of the festival?
To see all of the different arts coming together in a collaborative environment as a celebration of the arts.

Why is RawFfest important?
RawFfest gives the opportunity to young people to help run the festival in any way they’d like, photography, filming, planning, the list goes on! For many people, especially in rural areas, young people can really struggle to get into these type of things, it can have a massive impact on their future and aspirations.  As well as Placemakers, RawFfest gives many young people the opportunity to perform and run workshops which again can have a big impact on their vision for the future. As well as this, it also gives young people the chance to learn purely by coming to the Festival, with masterclasses, talks, workshops, etc. whilst also enjoying the atmosphere.

As RawFfest is helping young people in so many different ways, helping them grow as a person, helping them learn new skills (the list goes on) it’s important that the young people can feel their work is being valued and enjoyed.  Apart from that, RawFfest will be a brilliant weekend (I’m not saying this as the marketer, I’ve told all my friends to come as I believe they will genuinely enjoy it!). The Festival headliners are very exciting, the masterclasses in store will be massively informative to the relevant people and all the exhibitions in place are looking great. I’m so excited!

What makes RawFfest stand out from other local festivals?
The fact young people are in the driving seat gives a whole new perspective in the entire planning and operating processes. Focussing on the more fun, exciting aspects as well as ensuring everything we need is in place.

How would you describe Cardiff to someone thinking of coming to RawFfest from outside the city?
Welcoming, fun – & filled with the arts! I’ve recently read something that Cardiff is set to be the first ‘Music City’ in the UK – whether or not it happens, it seems about right!

Other than the impressive line-up, what else have people got to look forward to at RawFfest 2019?
I’ve read the list of all the planned exhibitions and it’s looking very exciting! Some really talented local artists are coming to show their work and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it!

In three words, sum up Raw Ffest….

Original, Quirky & Daring.

What event as part of the programme would you like to attend as an audience member?
The Indie-Rock Saturday headliners. I’m a fan of all the bands playing seeing them around Cardiff myself. They’re all bands with very exciting futures – & all kinda Cardiff famous!!

 There is a lot to plan ahead of a festival – marketing, logistics, spaces, the programme, production, ticket sales, staff and audiences wellbeing, fundraising, managing budgets, event planning, curating etc…. Where do you start?!
With a coffee…

Tell us about the team around you. How many of you are leading the festival and is everyone allocated specific roles?
A lot is yet to be announced. But at the PlaceMaker training all the young people put their names down to what they’d want to be doing throughout the festival, Marketing/ Operations/ ticketing etc. With that we’ll see what individual jobs each member will be doing – as well as swapping and changing throughout the Festival.

How does it feel being a part of a team creating something truly wonderful for young people in our capital city?
Brilliant – I thoroughly enjoy everything I do involving RawFfest.  Working with the team is highly rewarding, watching people grow, learning from them and making each other better people is just great. I can only wish everyone has the opportunity to work with a team like we do at RawFfest.

Tune back in later this week for more RawFfest news- and follow our Twitter and Insta too for updates.