Save Sea Change

+ Why Crowdfunder?

May Bank holiday 2020 would have marked the fifth edition of our Sea Change Festival in Totnes and Dartington, an ever-evolving celebration of music, art, literature and good times curated by the Drift Record Shop. 

But this year, as they say, has been unprecedented.

After six months of planning and adjusting, we were forced into the very sad - but somewhat inevitable decision - to cancel the 2020 event and not attempt a rescheduled physical edition in 2021, certainly not to the scale or complexity that we had planned and promoted for.

Sea Change is independently owned and operated, we simply cannot take the risk of even being able to run in 2021. We spent seven months of production work for an event that we had to cancel and that has left us financially decimated.

+ Crowd, we are today asking for your help

We need to raise £25,000 to clear the debt, bail us out, get out of jail and give ourselves time and space to return in the future with an ambitious and relevant new edition. Without your support, the future is very dark indeed.

+ Our cultural recovery

We applied for the Arts Council-coordinated 'Cultural Recovery Fund' and we were hugely disappointed to learn that we were unsuccessful. 

Fortunately for the live arts industry, we were in the minority, but we remain in a perilous position and in desperate need of financial intervention.

For context, we applied to Arts Council England for £92,632 to cover the annihilation of not being able to run this year's event, but also to invest in keeping our network of highly skilled people working, to ensure that Sea Change has a future.

With your help we're going to make an independent cultural recovery.

+ How this is going to work

We have reacted quickly and set up this campaign as we have liabilities (to other independent companies) that we must address. 

Support from our friends and partners has already been humbling and we will be holding regular prize draws to win artwork, test pressings and all sorts of other beautiful things.

If you contribute financially to this campaign, we will enter you into those draws. When we have more headspace and bandwidth, we will also find a way to recognise every single person who has put their hand into their pocket and supported us, when we needed it most.

The tagline for Sea Change 2020 was 'Let Us Face The Future', with your help this is going to take on an even greater significance.

Honestly, thank you.

In just four editions, Sea Change has welcomed the following amazing talents to Devon; Metronomy, The Comet is Coming, Billy Bragg, Aldous Harding, Peggy Seeger, Gruff Rhys, Gwenno, Shirley Collins, Damo Suzuki x Bo Ningen, Lubomyr Melnyk, Gazelle Twin, Bill Ryder-Jones, Maps, Jane Weaver, Black Midi, W. H. Lung, Stewart Lee, Ana da Silva, Will Burns and Hannah Peel, Virginia Astley, TVAM, Black Country New Road, Pip Blom, The Pop Group, Adrian Sherwood, Rozi Plain, Snapped Ankles, Josh T. Pearson, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Lost Horizons, The Weather Station, Rival Consoles, Gold Panda, Daniel Blumberg, Ryley Walker, Julie Byrne, Nadia Reid, Michael Chapman, Amber Arcades, Chris Forsyth, Jambinai, Blanck Mass, Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner performing the music of Bagpuss and our hero Andrew Weatherall (rip).