Nova Festival exclusive interview

Two of the ladies who helped establish the Big Chill, co-founder Katrina Larkin and creative producer Victoria Burns are launching a new festival, Nova. The festival, described as 'a re-imagining of the great British festival experience' and promises to offer an arts-filled weekend centred on installations, interactive performances, and exciting new music. eFestivals was lucky enough to be the only people to get an exclusive chat with the festival connoisseurs to find out a bit more about it. The only place you'll read an interview with them is here on eFestivals.

	A Temple Of Words

How does it feel leaving The Big Chill behind you and taking on a new venture?
Victoria: It was sort of a gradual process actually and as the event got bigger, it became its own sort of beast anyway.
Katrina: Yeah, Well around 2008 there was a big shake up at The Big Chill anyway and I sold some of my shares and became more of a creative director and a small time shareholder, and I guess I was a bit confused; Loving The Big Chill but Pete [Lawrence] was going and it was a whole new era, and I was kind of not knowing what would happen so like Victoria said, it was a gradual thing actually.
Victoria: Yeah, when it was sold to Melvin Benn for Festival Republic Katrina stayed on as the creative director in the handover and it was all very happy. I did the programming until 2010; 2009 was probably my leaving year.
Katrina: In 2010 we did a big Haiti Benefit at The Roundhouse, which was us doing a big event other than The Big Chill and I think that night was very significant for us in that we love working together, we work very well together, and that night was like 'there is life beyond The Big Chill'. We raised 100 grand and it was all about our ethos and we worked with all these people and we went 'yes we’re doing it'.
Victoria: It was really exciting actually, and another thing is we’d been there so long. It was the time to go and it was a gradual recognition that we’d quite like to move on and do some other exciting things and The Big Chill had changed so much over the years.

Did you go back this year?
Victoria: We didn't go this year.
Katrina: Melvin did email me and said 'I completely understand if you don't want to come along because you know it was the first year', and I went 'Um, that's probably good'. It wasn't in any way any kind of negative feelings towards it, it was just that it might have been a bit funny and it's a bit like … the kid has grown up, you know. The festival has become something else; it doesn't need me walking around going 'Why did they put that like that?' 'Why is that like that?'.., Also the relationships of the people that are still there, they need their own space to go and find their own feet and become their own thing. We did think about it all weekend. We were like 'Oooh I wonder what's going on now' and that was kind of it really.

Will The Big Chill bar group be involved with Nova?
Katrina: Nope, you're looking at the owners of the bar.
Victoria: I think we want to do something quite new so we don't want to take that much of The Big Chill and it was The Big Chill that was actually quite a long time ago - The Big Chill at the Larmer Tree Gardens is what we're looking back to but recreating that, re-imagining it and working with the 17 years experience we've got under our belts… taking all that knowledge and doing something quite new.
Katrina: Because also I think we're more able than we were in Larmer Tree days to build large sculptures and interactive art, and we’re going to be able to offer people more fun, and more involvement at the event because Larmer Tree was 10 yrs ago, since then we've done huge projects and built giant pyramids on hills…
Victoria: There's lots of the production we don't even have to think about because it's so second nature.
Katrina: We are a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We are the festival I hope that people are going to be able to come to and have really magical experiences because we are able to really produce a land and create an event that's small, it's very small, but will offer so much to the people that come because of our experience.

Wow, I'm excited.
Katrina: We're very excited!
Victoria: That's the thing. We are incredibly excited actually. I think it's also because it's challenging us to get back out there, like we used to do, and you know research acts, look for people coming up and new people doing interesting stuff. You know there's a whole new burgeoning art scene like visual arts where people get together in each other's houses and have these really arty nights, and it's exciting to get out there and really explore it from grass roots.
Another thing is because our budgets have suddenly shrunk right down it makes you really creative and you really have to go out there and look for the people who want the exposure, who are up and coming and about to break through, and that's both in the visual arts and music scene…
Katrina: And we're able to hold their hands and actually help them deliver projects and we’re able to give them the time because it is the only project Victoria and I are working on this year so we're really trying to get it right and give support at every level.

Katrina, is your involvement with Festival Republic completely dissolved now?
Katrina: Yes, it's only a friendship.

How long term is Nova? Have you got a long term plan if it doesn't turn a profit?
Victoria: Our plan in the first year is not necessarily to make a profit – it's not to make a loss! One of our principles is we're not working with any external investment, in order that we can maintain our complete creative input.
Katrina: Basically, previously I was a small time share holder in a company. Now that was all very well but when things go wrong you don't have the power to control it because it isn't your company. You can't tell other people to invest more and why should they? It's their business.
The whole thing about Nova and going back into the festival world is that we wanted a festival that we were financially responsible for and to be able to financially nurture it, and would have the resources to back it up and build it together. We didn't want to do anything bigger, which would mean bringing in outside investors because we want to be in charge of Nova's destiny. This is our money we're putting on the table and we believe in Nova 100 percent and we're working really really hard.
Victoria: The idea is to build it up very slowly. We're not out there to make a profit in year one, we're out there to survive in year one and to be able to reinvest in year two, and over three to five years just have something that is solid, that pays us a salary and allows us the freedom to develop artistically and creatively. Our grand plan over the next few years is it's a small festival, it's always going to be small in order that we can maintain production levels, and that quality of experience for the audience…
Katrina: And we can afford the risk on it each year…
Victoria: And then over the three years really we want to establish it to have a residence beyond the festival; that it's something on the cultural landscape, where people want to go because they are going to be challenged in nice ways whilst experiencing new art and music, and artists want to perform/produce their work because they know they're going to get the production support and have a receptive audience so it's all good, good, good!

	Zen Lake

How long has it taken to put together?
Katrina: We've been working on this for ages.
Victoria: Well, it's been a really interesting process since Katrina finally left Festival Republic. We've sort of explored different ways of doing it, talked a lot together, visited lots of different sites until when we started writing about it, it came quite easily because of all the language we’d been using over the past 18 months talking about it... We were also finding a language that was different from other festivals because there are some lovely small festivals but there is sort of a repetitiveness about what they promise and how they communicate it.
It's been a really interesting journey. So we’ve probably been working on it for about 2 yrs/18 months.
Katrina: A long time. Even though we hadn't said we were going to do this event, because we have a closeness and we talk all the time about our dreams/our aspirations, this has been a gradual build of ideas that had been going backwards and forwards but it wasn't something that was right for The Big Chill as The Big Chill had become something else and I guess it wasn't ours. This is ours and because it is we're just living and breathing it and going out and meeting people and flying the flag so to speak.

Are you taking inspiration from the original Big Chill then?
Victoria: We're the same people and we've got the same passions.
Katrina: It's taking a bit of the past but introducing new aspects to it. Things that fit the times we're in and also we're able to produce, we feel, much more exciting things on site because we've grown.
Victoria: The quality has gone up. There are two things we're trying to avoid at the moment, which is people thinking we're repeating the Larmer Tree Big Chill because we're not and the other thing is we're not a music festival. People so want to just ask about whose headlining but actually that's not what we're about. We're an arts festival with music and I think it will take year one for people to experience what we're doing to understand.
Katrina: And I don't want people to come to our event and just stand in front of the music stage for the weekend because you're missing out on so much else that's on offer. We want people to come and have a day planned where they might go to The University of Life as we're calling it at the moment and get involved, or might go and sit in one of the hot tubs in the woods, and then you might go and see some music you want to see, and then you might go to the theatre to see a performance so it's about a day with lots and lots of different experiences.
Victoria: A bit like going to visit the Edinburgh Fringe but in a field.

What can the festival goer expect of Nova? What are the unique points?
Katrina: It's small and loving. The people behind it are just really able to produce an event.
Victoria: The quality. It's an easy event to negotiate.
Katrina: Not being ripped off at the bars; affordable. It will be maybe slightly more than the regular pubs but we're trying to keep all prices within reason...
Victoria: I think its respectable prices rather than you getting a warm beer for £3.50 in a horrible plastic cup. There's a respect for the audience, and consideration and care on everything really.
Katrina: A lot of boutique festivals have actually become very commercial. Somebody said they went to one and felt like it was in the high street. We're going to remind people they are in the beautiful countryside.
Victoria: It's sort of engaging with the countryside; there will be lots of activities to do with that such as foraging and cooking outside. Everything that is there is going to be informed by where it is. It's all going to be experiential, not something you just look at but something you go and experience where you can interact so it's playful and some of it will be challenging but in good ways. There will be lots of surprise things that will happen too; you’ll experience things that aren’t actually on the programme.

Katrina: We wouldn't actually be able to put everything that is happening in the programme format because a lot of it is random and just about exploring the site and stumbling upon things. The other thing is we're putting a pub on site and we've decided to do toasties and things like that and sell crisps behind the bars like you would normally have in a country pub, and it's just so simple. We're just going to break those rules a lot of festivals have got themselves wrapped up in because of their deals that they do all over the place.
Victoria: Well they haven't got the time for that attention to detail like we're going to have pub entertainment with a twist; we've thought about having a real live fruit machine with people holding fruit and Bat the Rat.
Katrina: The other thing is we're running the bars like we used to do in very early Big Chill days and we're doing it because whatever happens at our event we want to be responsible for its delivery and its content, and that it’s loved and looked after and we know a lot of bar staff of course from the past and we're picking out people that we really like with big smiles on their faces to work there and people we want to work with.

What made you choose the West Sussex site? Was it an instantaneous 'fall in love' moment?
Katrina: We also fell in love with a family.
Victoria: I think when we first saw the site - in terms of its size it is perfect. One of the beauties of it is each part of it is quite discreet from the next… You enter a long driveway so we can pull cars off the road quickly, it has a car park and a strip of trees which you walk into and you are literally in this amazing camping field so you can't see the car park from the camping but it's literally there. Then you walk across the farm road and it goes into what we're calling the Zen Gardens where there's a Roman temple and a little lake with a tiny stage on, and it's just perfect, and that's all wooded and beautiful and the trees are just beautiful, and then the lovely thing is it opens out to what will be the more music-based livelier field. But each part is separate and in the summer when it's all leafy there are these natural sound barriers between each area so sound leakage, ease of access, and the fact you can easily be taken off into the festival world, you won't be able to see the road, you won't be able to see your car but it's so accessible. That was all important to us.

How many stages will there be?
Katrina: That's a bit difficult because we've got really small stages that might be the size of a soapbox... I don't know if we can answer that... There will be a cocktail bar called Supernova, there will be a music stage for live music, there will be a theatre stage for the Fearless Theatre, there will be a kids area with kids stuff going on; there will be another area we can't go into too much because it's a big surprise to be announced in January, where actors live but there is music.
Victoria: There will be a film tent and there will be outside screens.
Katrina: There are lots of small theatre groups coming so we don't know what they're building and how they’re going to do it.
Victoria: And there's the stage on a lake of course, and the trees are so lovely it's all going to be illuminated and we're thinking of doing some projection mapping on some of the buildings. Instead of fireworks actually – for a grand finale we’re looking into things like that.

	Kids Area

Can you tell us a bit more about the kids' area, The Land of the Bumbley Boo?
Victoria: I think it's going to be a lot more staffed than other festivals...
Katrina: And the staff will almost be in character to entertain the children...
Victoria: And we've got a lot of young teaching assistants who are trained and CRB checked, and they're very enthusiastic, and they're going to be the kids' chaperones. They'll take them off in groups and do games and activities and we thought about theming each day so for example Superhero day full of related activities and fun.

That's where I want to be!
Katrina: Well, there will be these areas for adults too! We used to do kids areas and the adults would whine 'Why can't I join in?' so we'll make sure there is a balance – adult fun and adult camps as well. Don't worry about that.
Victoria: There will be entertainers, face painters, balloon modellers and puppeteers but we'll also have kids stuff running within other areas so there will be kids films and there will be family-based shows in the theatre. Also you'll be able to take part in the artwork with your family.
Katrina: If we're talking about something we’ve taken from Big Chill actually, that was very early Big Chill philosophy that you have all these different people/age groups coming to an event and the whole thing works really, really well side by side. You can have people dancing until whatever silly hour in the morning if they want or enjoying day activities with their kids.

What would you say to anyone who thinks you're mad for starting a new festival in this current economic climate?
Katrina: One, we are keeping it small; Two, we really are doing something different and we think people are looking for something different as well, and I think people will trust as we'll be able to deliver.

Have you any plans for any other events?
Victoria: We're going to work on this and get it going. I think in our long term plan we'd like to start doing some urban events in interesting environments but that will be a couple years off; we want to nurture this first.

Can you give us any information on any acts you've been in talks with?
Katrina: We have and we have booked up quite a few acts – theatre acts, music acts, and visual arts acts; it is amazing what we've we got. In fact we booked a lot of the stuff before we went public because we wanted to really make sure that in January when we said who was participating that we would be really very proud to say it. We made sure that before we announced it our foundation was really strong.
Victoria: It's not just with artists directly, it's also our connections with cultural partners. We can't give anything away just yet but some of them are national arts organisations...
Katrina: And we do have international artists coming to perform as well, and we've been a bit surprised but we're very fortunate to have a lot of contacts over the last 17 years so rather than just sending an email we actually went to meet lots of people and described what our aspirations were for Nova so people would really understand so that them performing was them really wanting to be a part of it rather than it just being on their tour dates so to speak.

	Zen Gardens

Any advice for first time festival-goers?
Katrina: Come to Nova! It's the first time for Nova so it's a good place for them to go! I think more and more people are going to festivals than ever before; I think whatever preconception they have of festivals, it’s really developed now so just come with an open mind.
Victoria: Yeah and not too much stuff!
Katrina: Yeah, just really if you're feeling stressed or to escape the everyday there's no better place to go than to a festival to unwind... the right festival. I think going to something like Nova will just give people 4 days in the countryside with great people participating and getting involved and our aim is they will leave on the Monday with big smiles; we'll have done more for them than a year in therapy! We'll spring clean the mind! I also love to offer people opportunities and to hold their hand through new experiences… we really want to say 'Come on and get involved with building and so on. We’re going to have a lot of fun together.'
Victoria: We’d like to encourage people who haven't been to a festival before by offering something different.


Nova, will be held for four days from Thursday 5th to Sunday 8th July 2012 in the valley and gardens of a West Sussex estate at Bignor Park in Pulborough.

There are no acts confirmed yet for 2012. Nova intends to provide a platform for break-through new music alongside well known favourites.

A limited number of early bird weekend tickets are priced at £100. All remaining weekend tickets thereafter will be at £139 for adults, £100 for students, teen tickets (aged 13-17 years) are priced at £60, and children aged under 12 can attend for free.

To buy tickets, click here.

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