To all our fans and followers…
Firstly, we’re very sorry that you’ve all had to witness more nonsense than usual over the last few days. We’ve been dealing with our beloved Langaland being cancelled and working on a replacement event, and then unfortunately someone chose this time to very publicly air a disagreement amongst the festival team, in an attempt to bring both ourselves and the festival into disrepute. We have tried to reach out and settle things privately, so as to avoid any more upset between parties, but sadly this has been turned down. As certain things have been said about us and how we work, we feel that at this point our only option is to present our version of events and hope that this all blows over, for the good of the other hardworking people on the festival team, and all the artists and audience for whom we have endless love for. We’ll keep this as brief as possible: After our second event in 2017, our original director of the Main Stage left and appointed Prizma Events as a replacement for 2017 onward. Initially, we were excited to work with a new team - anyone who knows us will know that we love meeting new people and learning new things. It soon became apparent that Prizma were not fully committed to the role, and had a very different approach to getting things done. They didn’t see us as an important part of the festival - despite being part of the original team and being responsible for founding and developing the festival into what it is today (this year notwithstanding, obviously). We have been a central cog in the running of Langaland since founding it with close friends in 2016 - and due to various reasons, the festival means a huge amount to us and we’ve dedicated 4 years of love, dedication and time to it. They were also consistent in expressing their doubt at our professionalism and our level of commitment to Langaland - despite our work bringing the majority of artists, audience and crew to the festival - as well as fundraising (thousands of pounds over the years), curating artwork, promoting (including two shows with BBC Introducing), providing paid opportunities for disadvantaged young people and overseeing the creative direction of the festival. Many of you will know that we’ve been working for over 5 years across the DIY arts scene, working on many successful projects and forming partnerships with promoters, venues, artists and organisations across the UK (including the Tate St. Ives, the BBC, Plymouth Underground, UK Young Artists and Bristol Museum among others). Since 2017, despite being bought in solely as programmers and stage management (alongside other teams who we’ve worked with for many years), Prizma have consistently questioned the direction of the festival (without constructive advice), expressing their wish to cancel it on numerous occasions and at times calling it a “f*cking mess”, among other things. Whilst it’s true that any DIY event can seem a bit all over the place, we always remained confident in our ability, and the commitment to the rest of the festival team, to problem solve and offer positive solutions - something which we felt was not forthcoming from Prizma. The feedback from artists and guests alike has been overwhelmingly positive, and it has been clear how much of the festival audience enjoyed the many acts, workshops, talks and performances we’ve programmed. One of our first major concerns with working with Prizma was the lack of diversity in their programming. After a conversation about the Main Stage in 2018, it became apparent that they did not value an inclusive line-up - programming largely straight, white, male acts. When this was questioned by us, we were met with aggressive and argumentative rebuttals and a lack of co-operation or compromise, even when we offered to help. One response from Prizma was that there were ‘no female acts’ in Devon to book, and that the few they knew of were ‘too expensive’. This still remains their view, although we know that it is wholly untrue. In 2018, we also stepped in to help programme the main stage (partly due to diversity concerns, partly due to lack of organisation), and provided stage management support taken from our own team. To this date, we have not been acknowledged or thanked for this. This year, it has become even clearer that Prizma not only do not share our focus for diverse artists and audiences (including LGBTQI+, neuro-diverse and equal representation of gender), they have also used derogatory language, describing it as a ‘circus’ and ‘la la land’ - an attitude that we feel is representative of the largely hetero-normative, sexist and queerphobic music scene in the UK which we have worked so hard to reject. We do, however, recognise their work in promoting cultural diversity in their lineups and this is something that we are focusing on this year more than ever. In conclusion, although our role (voluntarily, for 4 years and including around 50 team members) has been to support Langaland in any way we can, particularly in forming its creative vision and overseeing all the programming, this has been made hugely difficult by a consistent lack of communication, disrespect for our role and how we work, and some very questionable views on equal representation. We have tried time and time again to offer advice, make compromises and work with Prizma to no avail. Any constructive criticism was met with extreme over-reactions, and a lack of communication for weeks on end when decisions needed to be made. Every member of the Langaland team (and many of our followers) have always been enthusiastic and keen to offer positive solutions, but sadly this never seemed the case from Prizma (including one member of their team who seems to direct the most abuse and negativity towards us who we are yet to meet in person or understand how they’ve helped in any way). Unfortunately we’ve all been under a huge amount of stress - changing sites, changing dates and fighting the cancellation of the festival (on top of all the usual stresses of running an event of this scale). Whilst Prizma have been keen to point out that they’ve also been stressed, they were not forthcoming on any positive suggestions about how we might move forward, instead choosing some of our most difficult moments as a team to take things to a personal level and focus on themselves. Despite our best efforts over the last few days to draw a line under all of this; even offering a lengthy explanation about how we work, our connection to the festival, and an explanation about our mental health and personal details, our efforts to right any wrongs have been turned down. In a recent conversation, we were told to ‘keep our chin up’ and ‘act more professionally in future’ after offering these explanations. We have a growing reputation as a welcoming, friendly, creative and accessible arts organisation and we don’t take accusations of bullying or, to a lesser extent, lack of professionalism lightly. Although tensions have been running high this week, and things have been said in the heat of the moment, we hoped that we might be able to resolve any disputes privately. Obviously we are hugely disappointed that the festival we’ve all worked so hard to create with our friends of many years has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. It’s also been a difficult time for us due to struggles with mental health and a close friend being hospitalised in a critical condition. We’re disappointed that Prizma couldn’t have the grace to put disagreements aside in this difficult time, and that their last word has been to very publicly put Langaland Festival into disrepute and cause unnecessary upset across the board. We apologise for any mistakes we’ve made in the last few days and have nothing but love for everyone who knows how hard we work and how much love we have for the underdogs, outsiders, geeks and beautiful freaks across the South West and beyond. See (most of) you next year, WE ARE UNCOLLECTIVE AND WE LOVE YOU
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August 2019
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