GB-London: Development and delivery of the annual Thamesmead Festival

An experienced cultural organisation is sought to develop and deliver the annual Thamesmead Festival around Southmere Lake in August 2022, working closely with a group of passionate and dedicated local residents who make up the Festival Production Group.

The appointed organisation will work with the Production Group 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 fifth 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 therefore becomes the backbone of this tender, and it is the process of working with this group that we will be assessing in the tender responses. The Festival Production Group currently includes 11 local residents and we are looking to grow this to a maximum of 16 local residents to ensure good representation of the local community. The Festival Production Group will be part of the selection process and work with the appointed organisation from the start.

The date for the festival has been set for Saturday, 20 August 2022 by the Festival Production Group. There is some flexibility in this date, though we would like the event to happen in August and any date changes would have to be agreed with the Festival Production Group. It is anticipated that the festival will be a one day event, but this tender is open to other proposals for a longer duration.

The festival should also include a close partnership with Bow Arts who have reopened the Lakeside Centre as a cultural hub on the north of Southmere Lake, housing 35 studios for artists who are living and working Thamesmead. The physical proximity of the Lakeside Centre to the festival site provides a great opportunity to provide an extended cultural offer for the festival.

Upon the successful delivery of the August 2022 festival, we are able to extend the contract to deliver the 2023 festival once budgets have been confirmed. It is anticipated this will be confirmed in November 2022 and the budget for the 2023 festival will be of a similar value. You do not need to provide a proposal for the 2023 festival as part of this tender.

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.