GB-Southmere Park, Thamesmead, London: Development and delivery of the annual Thamesmead Festival August 2024

An experienced cultural organisation is sought to develop and deliver the annual Thamesmead Festival around Southmere Lake in August 2024, working closely with a group of passionate and dedicated local residents who make up the Festival Production Group, as well as appointing and managing a small number of local paid Programmers to help with the programming of the festival site.

The appointed organisation will work with the Festival Production Group and Programmers throughout the development process, enabling them to make creative choices which will result in a large scale, ambitious, and high-quality event that truly celebrates local talent and represents the best of Thamesmead.

This will be the seventh annual Thamesmead Festival to take part around the Southmere area, and the event has become a key moment in the cultural events calendar for Thamesmead. The festival is part of our developing cultural programme and aims to raise the profile of Thamesmead and put local residents at the heart of our creative programming.

Collaborating with the Festival Production Group and local Programmers therefore becomes the backbone of this tender, and it is the process of working with local people that we will be assessing in the tender responses. The Festival Production Group currently includes 10 local residents, and we are looking to refresh this group to give other people the chance to join and to ensure good representation of the local community.

Further, we are looking to build on the success of this group and appoint 3-4 local residents into paid roles as Programmers, to sit between the Festival Production Group and the Delivery Partner. They will be responsible for doing extensive research into local musicians, performers, visual artists and groups and presenting these back to the Festival Production Group. The Programmers will be instrumental in diversifying the stage and site programme, adding new and exciting content as the festival continues to grow. They will be closely managed by the Delivery Partner and be an instrumental part in delivering the festival. Recruiting these Programmers supports Peabody's strategy of delivering paid opportunities for local people in the creative industries and the Programmers will benefit from being employed by an experienced delivery partner, offering real life work experience and networking opportunities. We appreciate additional budget will be required to manage these roles, which is to be taken out of the available budget offered for this contract. Some members of the current Festival Production Group will be part of the selection process for this tender. During this tender process we will be recruiting for the refreshed Festival Production Group. The recruitment of Programmers will be done in collaboration with the chosen Delivery Partner and the refreshed Festival Production Group towards the end of 2023.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.