Boundary Brighton 2020: A Conversation with Luke Ralph – Marketing

Hey Luke! Welcome to Dance Rebels, how are you? Please let us know what your role within Brighton’s ‘Boundary Festival’ is too please? I am one of the partners in Boundary Brighton; my role is mainly to focus on marketing and getting the tickets sold!

How did you first become involved with the Boundary Festival? What is your day to day work schedule like within your role too? Demanding or manageable? I started out as a ticket seller for Shakedown Festival and slowly each year got more and more involved. As my promotion company grew so did my ambition and eventually it all fell into place for me to take over and actually run/own Boundary (which used to be called Shakedown). Day to Day is manageable just about but I would be lying if I said running festivals don’t come with untold amounts of pressure and stress.

What aspects of your role do you find the hardest, and what is the most enjoyable part of your role within Boundary Festival? Hardest is probably the pressure. If you have a bad club show and don’t sell the tickets you may lose a few thousand pounds. A bad festival – you will lose a couple hundred thousand pounds. A lot of external factors can make life tough too, its a bitter pill to swallow when external factors such as weather or politics can undo a year’s hard work! Competition and trying to compete with the big festival organisers is very tough too, most of the best talent will be blocked or locked off to the major festivals but slowly over the years we are getting more and more established and artists do actually want to come and play for us now which is a very rewarding feeling. Most enjoyable part is show day when it all comes together – it can be a pretty humbling experience.

The Boundary Festival is celebrating its fifth birthday this summer, on 26th August at Stamner Park, so, what special plans can you tease to our readership now, which will make the event an epic experience? We have booked our biggest ever act to mark the occasion and can’t wait to reveal our headliner. We have increased capacity and moved over to a slightly bigger field on the same site. Excited to freshen things up as it’s about time too. We have also grown our 3rd stage capacity and excited to reveal a bigger line up for that stage which I think will be very well received.

Looking back over the years, how do you think Boundary Festival has evolved? What do you think makes this festival unique when compared to others too? I think the production and talent has always had a marked improvement each year (as well as the amount of tickets sold) We are seen traditionally as the last festival of festival season and right at the end of summer. One more festival for everyone after the festival blues! I have never ever seen a fight or any anti-social behaviour ever, the atmosphere and vibe is unique, and for that reason everyone is there for the music and to have a good time which isn’t sadly always the case at other shows. We are always careful to market the show the right way, heavy focus on the artists and sounds they will be bringing and we like to think we have a deep understanding of our audience and what they want as the line ups have been pretty much spot on each year. Not easy to do when competiting with some of the major festivals.

Last year’s line-up from my perspective was eclectic, you had a range of artists including Chase & Status, Andy C, Camelphat and Alan Fitzpatrick, how important is diversity when curating a line-up for a festival? What are you key ingredients? I think understanding what you are trying to achieve first and foremost, and what it is your audience actually wants. We have evolved the boundary line up each year based on the feedback we receive on show day and post show. Diversity is definitely key, but it has to be the right diversity in order to not alienate your audience. The major key ingredient is getting artists you know sells the tickets for you!

When planning line-up’s for Boundary Festival, what are the hardest decisions to make? And how long does it on average take to finalise the line-up and put it all into action? Is there a certain way you decide if an artist is worthy of a festival booking too? It takes about 6 months and a lot of discussion and uhming and ahhring. I thankfully work with who I would consider the best booker in the UK, Sarah Cole. She has amazing music knowledge and knows who will be hot, and who may go off the boil. Having someone who has been there and done it and books festivals all over the UK and Europe is invaluable. We book some artists up to a year or more in advance so it can be tricky to judge who will sell your tickets for you come September. It takes a lot more research than you think, checking ticket sites, artists shows upcoming and previous, asking contacts how well this show did, anaylising your own data and trying to convince the agents to then let you have the artist you want. There are a lot of 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice, 4th choice scenarios which then may affect what else you book. There are a lot of pieces to the jigsaw.

Will this year’s Boundary line-up focus on the same genre of artists from previous editions, or will the line-up of genres available on the day be further evolving, and the number of arena’s increasing too, to accommodate more genres and artists? The size of the arenas will increase but we will stick with 3 stages for this year. We may consider adding a 4th next year if there is a sound we consider there is enough demand for. I would place and consider us as a rave festival and the line up will reflect that once again.

If you could hand pick ANY artist to perform at Boundary Festival, who would it be too, and why? Also, what do you think he Boundary Festival ‘anthem’ is too? There are too many to possibly say. We have had some insane artists already that I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to work with. Our 2020 headliner would have been my first (semi realistic) choice for Boundary. The anthem I have in mind would give away our headliner so will have to pass on that one for now.

Finally, in your own words, what does Boundary Festival mean to you, and why should people attend the fifth anniversary this year, especially those who have never attended the festival before too? It’s a reason to wake up in the morning and motivate myself to work every day. The fifth year is special as we are constantly reminded how tough this game is especially for independent promoters like ourselves, we are just grateful to still be able to do the show 5 years later. Boundary does evolve and grow every year. It has gone from 8,000 people to 22,000 in 5 years and sold out every year. Whilst we aren’t quite there to the numbers of Boomtown, Parklife, We Are Fstvl & Lovebox it’s an amazing feeling to see our festival get mentioned in guides next to these truly amazing shows. If you have never been before I think the atmosphere and vibe may pleasantry surprise first time goers, as well the value for money. You can see world class talent in sunny Brighton for the price of a haircut these days! The ease of getting around the site on the day is another major factor for me. There are no long walks / confusing signs everything is right where you want and need it to be which is crucial for a one day festival. Oh, and we always make sure the sound is good and loud. Having been to a few festivals where the sound wasn’t loud enough it is a make or break for me personally. We aim to get 3 things spot on every year and the rest falls into place – sound, make sure it’s loud enough, bars, make sure there isn’t a queue and toilets, make sure there’s enough. 

Tickets for Brighton Boundary 2020 are available now, chick HERE to purchase!