All You Need To Know About Holding A Successful Cultural Event

Posted on Aug 2 2016 - 6:06pm by Editorial Staff

Cultural events can be difficult to get right if you have never hosted one before. They come in all shapes and sizes, but there are some common problems that you will face. You need to define an audience, pay for it all and persuade people to turn up on the day. There’s a lot of mistakes that can get made when you are trying to make this happen.

It doesn’t have to go wrong though. All you have to do is organise the cultural event in a careful way that takes into consideration all the important factors. If you do this, you should be able to create an event that is fit for purpose. Having the right knowledge of what it takes to run a successful cultural event is always the first important step to take. So, here are all the things that you need to know about doing exactly that.

Choose Your Cultural Niche

You need to pick a particular cultural niche that your event can target. This might be an event that celebrates a particular cultural group in the community. Or it might aim to bring various cultural heritages and traditions together. On the other hand, it might celebrate art and creativity in the area. There are so many things that can make a good cultural event. It is important to have a very clear definition of what your event is all about though. This will help you to market it to the public later on.

Get Creative with Funding

Finding the funding to make your event happen is always a challenge. There are ways that you can get the funds you need though. By getting creative and appealing to sponsors, it should be possible for you. Of course, having the backing of someone who can afford to fund the event is always helpful. Unfortunately, it’s not always an option. When you’re trying to appeal to sponsors, show them what they have to gain from sponsoring your event. And you could even think about crowdfunding part of the event. This generates interest and raises some money.

Create an Inclusive Environment

It’s important to have an inclusive environment when you’re working on creating this kind of event. It’s not something that has to be too difficult to do either. You just need to be open and accessible to everyone in the community. This is something that every kind of event should try to do. It might mean making sure that your event is accessible to people in wheelchairs. And it could also mean catering to people of different religions and cultures. These things should be taken into account so that people don’t feel excluded from what you’re trying to do.

Target All Kinds of Communities

Attracting people to your event is always going to be a big challenge. It’s something that has to be done though. What use is an event without anyone to attend? The great thing about cultural events is that they have a unique ability to bring people together. So, try to target people from all kinds of communities and demographics in your local area. There is no reason why you should only target one type of person. You can target them via local media, posters, online marketing and other forms of advertising. Think about which methods will be most successful.

Event 1

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Aim for a Low-Cost Event

There are two ways in which the event should be kept low-cost. First of all, you need to make sure that you have a strict budget in place that can regulate spending. It’s easy for spending to get out of control when you are hosting an event. It’s not a cheap thing to do, but restraint is important. And then, when you have kept the expenses down, you can pass on the savings to attendees. By keeping the entry price and other prices low or even free for people, you’ll attract more people. The precise spending and finances of each event always varies though.

Find the Best Speakers

Most events have someone who is hosting them or speaking in some capacity. Of course, how you try to do that is up to you. Some events have many speakers who talk about their own specialist subject. And others have one person who speaks for a longer amount of time. This speaker should be someone who is known by and can appeal to your target audience. Some events host an awards section where people who have achieved things in the community are given prizes. On these occasions, a good host can help a lot with keeping the evening fun and flowing.

Event 2

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Give People Something to Take With Them

It’s always a good idea to give something to remember the event by. There are many different ways in which this can be done. You could provide everyone with a small souvenir. Or you could ask the sponsors to provide their own branded merchandise that can be given away. The sponsors often like this idea because it becomes another method for marketing their business. And that’s what they want. This won’t be the best solution if you want to give away specific cultural items. Companies do provide give away items to events like Naidoc, which celebrates aboriginal culture. So, if you look hard enough, there should be something out there that suits you.

Sort Out Drinks

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Whenever you’re holding an event, you need to have some kind of bar in place. How you organise this can be very important. Most big events will offer attendees some kind of arrangement that gives them a good offer. You could make them charge for drinks. But if you have the money to spend on it, it’s best to let people drink what they want and then you pick up the bill later. A consumption bar is usually best because this allows you to pay for what people actually drink. Other options when you hire an events bar often leave you with a bigger bill at the end of proceedings.

About the Author

Editorial Staff at I2Mag is a team of subject experts.