St Osyth Summer Sounds
Evaluation & Case for Support
Produced by Arts Trust Productions
Introduction
St Osyth Summer Sounds, produced by the charity Arts Trust Productions, is a bold new festival created to reduce isolation in rural and marginalised communities by connecting people through music, food and community engagement. In its inaugural full year, the festival brought world-class performances, inclusive cultural opportunities, and a thriving local food market to the historic grounds of St Osyth Priory. Rooted in a Farm to Fork ethos, the festival champions local producers and celebrates the unique cultural and social identity of Tendring.
As the Director of Arts Trust, my vision is to establish St Osyth Summer Sounds as Essex’s largest free music and food festival within the next decade. By 2026, our ambition is for the entire festival to be free of charge, ensuring that cost is never a barrier to participation.
Mission & Aims
Mission
St Osyth Summer Sounds exists to reduce isolation in rural and marginalised communities by creating inclusive cultural opportunities that connect people through music, food, and community engagement.
Aims
To establish the festival as Essex’s largest free music and food festival, rooted in a Farm to Fork ethos.
To champion local producers, farmers and craft makers, strengthening the rural economy while reducing environmental impact and promoting sustainable food systems.
To stimulate the local economy by supporting shops, restaurants, accommodation providers and transport services, while providing new markets for Essex-based producers.
To showcase world-class performances alongside local artists and highlight the work of local charities and services.
To ensure that the festival delivers broad social impact, strengthening health, wellbeing and community pride.
Origins
As Director of Arts Trust, my connection to this place is deeply personal. I was born in St Osyth, the third generation of my family to live here, before leaving to pursue a career as a dancer. Over the past fifteen years I have created and produced major community festivals, including Greenwich World Culture Festival, King’s Cross Summer Sounds, and Summer in the Park. These events have won awards and achieved national acclaim for their ability to bring people together across cultural and social divides.
In developing Creative Tendring, our wider cultural programme for the district, we undertook extensive consultation. Local residents consistently told us they wanted large-scale, community-focused festivals that were also excellent in artistic quality. In 2024, we tested this vision with a pilot Summer in the Park event at St Osyth Priory. The success of this pilot cemented our partnership with the Priory and confirmed the appetite for a large-scale festival in the area. From this foundation, St Osyth Summer Sounds was born.
Audience Reach & Impact
In 2024, St Osyth Summer Sounds reached a total audience of 3,664 people. This included 2,135 paid / discounted tickets and 1,529 free tickets, ensuring access for local residents and families who might otherwise face barriers to participation. This balance between financial viability and accessibility demonstrates our commitment to both sustainability and inclusion.
The festival was more than an event: it was a moment of transformation for individuals and families. One audience member reflected on their experience:
“What an absolutely phenomenal day! … I suffered really badly with postnatal anxiety and festivals and live music were one of the things that I’ve really missed the last few years. Now that my little one is three, I feel like I’m getting back to my old self and much more confident again. This was my little one’s first ever festival and it absolutely didn’t disappoint. … We really couldn’t have asked for more.”
— Carina, Matt & Phoenix
This testimony captures the festival’s role in supporting mental wellbeing, family connection, and confidence-building.
Another audience member praised the professional delivery and family-friendly atmosphere:
“We went to the festival today and absolutely loved it … there were great food places, bars and lots of things to experience for adults and children. The loos were very clean too! The security staff were all professional, friendly and helpful. The Chefs Kitchen was great … It was a real family-friendly event and we were so glad to be part of it. Loved it all, well done.”
Feedback such as this confirms the festival’s quality, professionalism, and inclusive spirit.
Building Trust & Audience Development
Ticket sales on the opening day were lower than expected, reflecting the need to continue building trust with the local community. However, as soon as the festival opened, positive experiences began to spread rapidly. Social media was flooded with praise from local residents, and within one hour between 5–6pm on the Saturday evening, 500 tickets were sold for the following day. This demonstrates that while trust in new cultural events takes time to establish, word of mouth and local endorsement are powerful drivers of participation.
For 2025, our strategy will build on this learning by:
Expanding pre-festival publicity and outreach through local press, door-to-door campaigns and schools.
Creating a network of community champions and ambassadors.
Strengthening digital and social media activity to amplify positive messages earlier in the process.
Inclusion & Community Power
Accessibility and community ownership were at the heart of the festival. A striking moment was captured when a blind audience member engaged with the 12ft walkabout giant puppet, demonstrating how multi-sensory outdoor arts can create meaningful experiences for audiences of all abilities.
Equally important was our partnership with Clacton Arts Centre, to whom we handed over budget and decision-making power to programme 12 local artists. Arts Trust provided the staging, power and marketing infrastructure, but curation was entirely in community hands. Programmer Ian from Clacton Arts Centre described this as “the highlight of our year.”This model of community-led curation gave local artists a platform, strengthened cultural confidence and will be expanded in future editions.
Partnerships & Economic Impact
The festival marked the growth of our strategic partnership with St Osyth Priory, a landowner central to our long-term vision. Together, we have a ten-year plan to grow St Osyth Summer Sounds into the largest free community music and food festival in Essex.
Local enterprise was also central to the event. In partnership with Aldeburgh Food Festival, we curated a food and craft market showcasing the best of Essex and Suffolk. One local family selling wristbands reported earning 75% more than a normal trading day. To reflect our understanding of economic pressures in this first year, all traders were offered a 50% discount on pitch fees, strengthening trust and goodwill for the future.
The festival generated significant economic impact:
£55,000 spent on local infrastructure and people, including staging, power, and crew.
12 local hotels booked for artists, cast, and crew.
Dozens of small businesses, contractors and freelancers engaged in delivery.
This investment demonstrates the festival’s role not only as a cultural asset but as a driver of economic regeneration and resilience.
Learning & Future Vision
The 2024 festival demonstrated both the strengths of the model and areas for growth. We succeeded in delivering an inclusive, high-quality cultural experience that connected people across Tendring and beyond, while also learning valuable lessons about marketing, audience trust and long-term sustainability.
Looking ahead, our vision is clear:
By 2026, the entire festival will be free to access, ensuring culture belongs to everyone.
We will expand our community programming partnerships, giving local organisations greater ownership over curation.
We will grow the Farm to Fork offer, celebrating sustainable food systems and Essex producers.
We will scale up marketing and outreach to ensure every household in Tendring knows the festival is theirs.
We will continue to measure our impact with Canterbury Christ Church University to build a robust evidence base.