Komedia Bath

Nestled in the heart of Bath is Komedia – the home of music, comedy, film, cabaret and so much more. Since opening its doors nine years ago, the venue has brought world class live entertainment to three-quarters of a million individuals, securing it’s status as a leading venue of creativity in the city.

Known for their innovation, Komedia Bath turned to the crowd to transform their dream of community ownership into reality, inviting supporters to put the venue where it belongs – in their hands. With the full support and engagement of a community that cares, Komedia Bath demonstrated that together, they can keep the good times rolling for many years to come.

Komedia Bath stands as a testament to what independent venues and arts institutions across the whole of the UK can achieve, and we caught up with Eleanor Household, Sales and Marketing Manager at Komedia Bath, to find out how crowdfunding helped them on their journey to success.

Why did you decide to crowdfund?

Our desire for common-ownership and better engagement with our community was the catalyst that started us on our journey, and led us to the decision of becoming a Community Benefit Society – an endeavour that we knew would sit well with the community minded crowdfunding platform.

What does a community share offer mean for Komedia Bath?

It means that we can transform our business and the venue into one that is not just effective at hosting events, but to one that is also central and key to the city of Bath and the surrounding area.

We know that many organisations were watching our progress keenly and we think that this could well be the model for resilient and relevant mid scale venues all around the UK. We hope that the public appetite is there to keep the creative offer alive in their own cities and towns.

How did you go about promoting your Crowdfunder project, before it went live and also whilst it was running?

We worked incredibly hard behind the scenes! As well as building new relationships and re-engaging with old friends, collaborators and partners, our social feeds were key in getting the message out.

We filmed, interviewed and pulled together support from as many people as we possibly could, making sure that all of our local, and where possible national, media contacts were informed and updated as regularly as possible.

You received £100k of +Extra funding from BSC. What did this mean for your project?

It was and still is a huge landmark for us to be recognised by this pioneering organisation. It confirmed to us that what we are doing is being recognised as a fantastic community initiative.

What are your top tips to other project owners and those considering crowdfunding?

I would say that it’s more stressful than you might imagine! However, we have fantastic relationships that we couldn’t have imagined prior to the campaign.

Make sure that you reach out, connect and be open. It’s so important to use every offer of help and we found support in the most unlikely of places!

Set a realistic target and make sure that everyone is kept up to date.

• Want to know more about Komedia Bath? Check out their Crowdfunder project here.