Interview: Sunflowerfest 2010 founder

August 12, 2010 No Comments

The Sunflowerfest is a new music and arts festival on Northern Ireland’s gig calendar that takes place in Hillsborough from the 20th – 22nd August. It’s simply brimming with local talent, from Mojo Fury to Silhouette, to Pocket Billard’s – it has something for everyone. In the midst of his hectic schedule, founder Michael Magowan talks to MLNI about his journey in setting it up, Northern Ireland’s need to stand up for itself and the Haitian Earthquake victims, to whom all festival profits will be donated…

How did the Sunflowerfest come about?

I love going to festivals, love seeing live music and different outdoor, offbeat sort of stuff… My first festival was Glastonbury and I’ve been to a lot since then and that was definitely the best one in terms of talent but also the chilled vibe you get when you’re there – it doesn’t feel like you’re being milked for all your worth, whereas all the other festivals I’ve been to, they do very much feel like they’re a commercial venture. With Sunflowerfest , I wanted to keep it as a real community project and try and keep the ethos of the people by the people and for the people.

So you saw the kind of festival culture in Glastonbury and wanted to bring it to Northern Ireland?

But with a real Northern Irish slant because I think there’s a real inferiority complex in this wee country and I think there’s plenty not to feel inferior about. I want to get out of the mentality that we’re used to having a hand from Westminster and instead stand up and do something for ourselves, because we can stand on our own two feet if we just go for it, because there’s so much talent here.

So I came up with this idea of having a bigger festival and I looked at various venues… The fort in Hillsborough, the courthouse…. I tried to get involved with the Oyster festival but they didn’t respond to me at all, so I thought, “What can we do?” And I thought of the farm.

We have this beautiful wee farm and I knew it would be a difficult task to get the event approved, both with council and the neighbours. So I thought to myself, well I’m doing this for love – although there’s the potential to generate a lot of money, I’d do it anyway. I removed the money angle, so people can’t hold that against me, by doing it for charity. Then I cast around and thought, “Who’s the most needy group of people I can think of?” And I came up with the Haitian earthquake victims.

That’s how we arrived at supporting Haven, an Irish based charity who are on the ground in Haiti and have been since a few years before the earthquake. They have a very small operation in terms of administration, so nearly all the money you donate to them actually does work on the ground, whereas with these big corporate charities, up to 45% of donations goes on admin.

How much time have you had to devote to get Sunflowerfest up and running?

It’s been a full time job for me over the last 3 or 4 months and people might say, “Only 3 or 4 months?” Well I didn’t realise what I was getting myself into and I discovered that the fixed costs and amount of work involved were the same whether I went for 500, 1000 or 3,000 people.

Initially I’d been thinking 1,000 people and I thought well, it’s going to be the same so I applied for 3,000 people and the neighbourhood freaked out when they found out about that which is understandable because all they see is images of kids rolling in mud and things like that… but generally the neighbourhood is supportive of the concept and are looking forward to the event with a mixture of excitement and real curiosity.

It’s a family thing you’re setting up though?

That’s right, I’m in a family situation myself and really want to appeal to families. I’m now really focusing on building the family side of it. Today we just agreed to get a miniature fun park with bucking bronco, a slide and bouncy castle. We also  have a guy coming with his falcons to display, kite making, face painting, a percussion workshop and live street art.

We’ll be doing great food too – we’ve got Bay Tree restaurant from Hollywood doing fine dining, as well as their stall selling chutney and their world famous cinnamon scones. We’ve got Supernatural from Lisburn doing soup, Oodles of Noodles from botanic, my own little Cafe a Go Go will have a stall with breakfasts, juices, pancakes, afternoon tea, cake and grilled meat lunches. So we’re trying to make it as diverse as possible and there are a few little surprises that I don’t want to tell anyone at this stage.

It’s priced really reasonably too – It’s £28 for a weekend pass, you can camp for the weekend which is £5 a head, and if you leave the car home and cycle, I’ll buy you a drink and you’ll save yourself £2 on parking

You’ve got a big voluntary force who are all responding positively to the urge to help Haiti… Northern Ireland has recovered from its past now, so is this an opportunity to say we can stand up not only for ourselves but help others too?

That’s right, we’re all very well off here really, none of us are hungry, we all get a warm bed at night. 800,000 people in Haiti are still sleeping rough. Yesterday 28 died – that’s what I heard, I’m sure there are many more… it’s a desperate situation and a mind-boggling statistic.

This festival is a great way to open people’s eyes, away from their navels, to take note of those less fortunate in the world – what you’re doing’s great, there’s a real philanthropist vibe about it…

Yeah, well whatever it takes – I enjoy it, so there’s a selfish aspect to it as well! We’ve got a beautiful wee farm and I want to share it with people. Because a lot of people never get into the country – city folk especially…  so get down and get dirty, get mud between the toes you know, and get real!

And you need to get 3,000 people to come?

To do what we need to do – we’re aiming to build 40 or 50 homes in Haiti and Haven, the nominated charity, can build a house there for £500. So as they say in America ‘You Do The Math.’ They also desperately need volunteers to go and work. They’re about 30 short of a shipment of people to help at the moment – to dig foundations, drainage ditches and get the concrete in… these things are really easy to build, they just need the man power to go out and do it.

This could be Northern Ireland’s own live aid…

A few people have said that so I reckon it must be. We’re just doing our own thing, our version. The Guinness will be better at this! So buy your tickets before they sell out and help save lives.

Thanks for your time and good luck.

Thanks, absolute pleasure.

For more information on Sunflowerfest 2010,  including where to buy tickets and the line-up, click here

Festivals