Our organisation is built on partnerships. If you are interested in working with us on a project which supports the English folk, roots and acoustic music sector, we’d love to hear from you.
Below are some examples of past partnership working and some options for future collaborative opportunities.
We want as many people as possible to see the best English folk, roots and acoustic music. We are open to conversations with Showcases and festivals around presenting stages at your events.
Present artists at EFEx: We provide bespoke opportunities to present selected artists to English Folk Expo delegates through a dedicated showcase. This is aimed at agents, labels, management companies or similar who are looking to present artists they work with to delegates and raise the profile of their organisation.
These events are tailored to meet an organisation’s requirements, but as a guide they are usually 2 hours in length and showcase 3 artists. The organisation covers the direct event and catering costs plus a small facility fee to contribute towards EFEx’s producing team.
Each year, we sign an exclusive agreement with a country, province or territory to have a presence at the showcase and in the public Manchester Folk Festival. The international partnership has many benefits including:
We see the international partnership is the start of an ongoing strong, reciprocal and collaborative relationship with both the English, UK and partner territory’s music sectors.
Partners to date have been Denmark, Flanders, Prince Edward Island, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
An international partnership with EFEx offers a chance to highlight the partner country or territory and artists to an invited and select audience of music programmers from some of the biggest events in folk, roots and acoustic music in England and the world across the whole of the three day event.
It offers the chance to showcase up to four artists within the EFEx programme, presenting to the delegate music programmers, but at the same time also being part of the associated public festival playing to a ticket-buying audience. Depending on the level of partnership selected, there is also an option for those artists to be paid a small fee and be supplied with accommodation for the night of their Manchester Folk Festival performance. In addition, depending on the level of partnership selected, an additional artist can showcase to EFEx delegates at the partnership announcement at the preceding EFEx.
We have been working with the Official Charts Company to create an official folk chart…
Currently there is no chart dedicated to folk music. Other official charts include Gospel, Jazz & Blues, Urban, Country and Irish charts.
We have collectively devised a monthly chart with a top 40 of new album releases covering folk music from across the UK and beyond.
In order to get this chart off the ground, we are seeking a headline sponsor.
The sponsor would receive naming rights to the charts. This would include a profile in both print and broadcast media, online and in all monthly press releases.
We run programmes and events to support artists progress their careers. Our focus is on professional, rather than creative development.
Each of our programmes have been structured or expanded as a result of partnerships with a range of festivals, organisations and funding bodies.
If you share our interest in supporting sustainable careers for artists, please do get in touch for an informal conversation.
We need a vibrant and dynamic music industry in order to present the best artists to new audiences. In 2019 we developed a Promoter Training Programme in partnership with our friends at Beverley Fringe Festival.
Following this, we are keen to explore other areas we can develop partnerships and programmes to support other parts of the music industry or to continue to work with promoters and would-be promoters.
A key part of our work is around introducing folk, roots and acoustic music to wider audiences, such as through raising the profile of the genre.
In 2019, we were delighted to lead on a newly commissioned piece of gig theatre which commemorated the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre. Rising Up combined theatre and folk music to tell important stories about the role of women in protest, freedom of speech and democracy.
We were grateful to partners including EFDSS, Unite the Union and Arts Council England for enabling this to happen and we look forward to the future development of this project.
To this end, we are always open to have conversations about potetial future projects which could meet our aims around audience development and supporting artists.
Whether your interest is in festivals, training, commissioning, identity, heritage or more generally in Manchester / Rochdale / Greater Manchester, we are always looking for new supporters to ensure our work grows and continues.
We have a number of opportunities available for organisations and individuals to get involved in our work, whether this is sponsoring an event, supporting an artist or becoming a member of our community.
With key supporters we can offer ticket packages, advertising and profile space as well as event and stage naming rights.
