CELTIC COLOURS FINDS SOLUTIONS
NovaStream, Marcato Festival help international event maintain level of success
With the 22nd Celtic Colours International Festival getting underway in less than a week, I can’t help looking back to when I started working as information officer in 1999.
The festival was only a couple of years old and we were still figuring out how to make it all work.
We were working out of the old office in downtown Sydney, with a view of Charlotte Street and windows that opened. It was cramped but not uncomfortable. Nevertheless, we would soon outgrow the space.
Those were busy years. An artist-in-residence program was introduced, the workshop schedule was expanded, and the festival grew from 34 concerts to 44 and then 48 concerts. Organizing the details and keeping information up to date was becoming more challenging and we were getting buried under piles of paper.
Everything was done on paper at the time. I had binders and binders of paper: for artist biographies and schedules and show descriptions and workshop descriptions. Everyone else had binders too, full of the information they needed. Some of this information needed to be shared and therefore was duplicated in multiple binders.
Every time something changed, as details were sorted out and schedules finalized, new copies had to be printed and distributed. At times, it could be such a task just keeping up with updates that there was barely enough time to get the work itself done. We were starting to come up with some makeshift, in-office solutions, but it was becoming clear that there needed to be a better way to integrate and organize it all.
And then along came Darren
Gallop and Morgan Currie, who were working on a way to keep track of touring details and logistics for the record label Gallop ran and the bands he managed.
Gallop and Currie came in for a meeting and after a discussion about what was needed for the festival to keep up with itself, they started working on a custom database for Celtic Colours.
Recognizing that other events and organizations would likely benefit from this type of data
management tool, the idea was developed to be more flexible in order to accommodate the needs of other events, and Marcato became a local company specializing in the creation and development of web-based management solutions for the live event industry.
Marcato celebrated its 10th anniversary last week and Marcato Festival has developed into an essential live event management tool used by festivals, events and
organizations around the world.
Innovations like “the database,” which help things run more smoothly behind the scenes, have allowed Celtic Colours to expand while maintaining the high standards it has established.
While Marcato Festival keeps things organized, another local company is largely responsible for one of the most visible aspects of the festival, its video/visual presence.
In 2006, Darcy Campbell had been doing freelance video work around town and was hired to edit a TV commercial for the festival’s 10th anniversary. Impressed with the results, Campbell’s role quickly expanded to encompass all aspects of video production for the festival, and eventually live-streaming and website design and integration as well.
As needs arose, Campbell looked for solutions, and as opportunities presented themselves, he put together a team able to meet the challenges and bring the vision to life, producing top quality material in the process. There is an artistic integrity to his work, which has been recognized beyond the festival and led to many opportunities for Campbell and his company NovaStream.
Celtic Colours’ promotional videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views, likes and shares, and there is a dedicated, worldwide audience that tunes in during the festival to watch selected concerts online. These livestreams have been produced by NovaStream since 2012.
And the streaming starts up once again on Friday night as the 2018 Celtic Colours International Festival kicks off in Port Hawkesbury. Featuring concerts and cultural events in 70 communities all over Cape Breton Island, Celtic Colours wraps up with a grand finale concert at Centre 200 in Sydney on Saturday, Oct. 13.
For tickets or more information visit celtic-colours.com, call 902-567-3000 (local), 1-888-3557744 (toll free), or drop in at the Celtic Colours box office on Nepean Street in Sydney.