The Conference of Holbeck Moor

Thinking about the cultural future we’re going to make together

An audio livestream of every presentation.

Every talk and presentation during The Conference of Holbeck Moor will have the audio livestreamed. You’ll be able to follow any of the talks from this landing page. Talks begin at 11:15 on 9th September.

After the event the audio talks will be archived here too.

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When and where?

9th and 10th September 2021. Holbeck, South Leeds.

Who is it for?

People who care how culture works in this country and will commit time and effort to take action to make it better. You might be an independent artist or producer or someone who is leading a cultural organisation, and at any stage of your career. The Conference of Holbeck Moor is for those who are prepared to take responsibility for making positive change happen.

What is it?

An outdoor arts conference. Around a big campfire. With a number of big tents. A creche with the brilliant Bea & Co. Headphones allow you to listen to any event from anywhere. Accessible to each delegate on an individual basis. A cabaret in the evening. Travel and Accommodation bursaries for those delegates that need it. Tickets are Pay What You Decide. Focused on stories of practical change and progress. We’re working with a team of curators to find the best line-up possible; Nima Taleghani, Pia Richards, John Battle, Keisha Thompson and Claire Graham. You’ll hear from chefs, academics, military leaders, about pirates and laundrettes, about anti-fascist football teams and swimming baths- and much else beside.

Pay What You Decide

Decide. It is an act of politics. The least interesting, most prevalent identity in society is customer. Those of us who receive public funding, whether regularly or through project funding, understand that the market cannot support everything that is important and that a flat relationship to value and worth limits what we collectively are capable of.

So for the last 10 years, Slung Low has made everything that we can Pay What You Decide. It’s transformed the make-up of our audience, our relationship with our funders and, in conjunction with our company wage policy, the conversations and debates we have with our community. We haven’t seen a decline in income but we have seen a change in patterns of income with some paying more than others and some paying little or nothing.

The Conference of Holbeck Moor is Pay What You Decide. But unlike our other activities you will pay before the event. This is a practical consideration. We have a responsibility to Arts Council England to ensure that the conference is at capacity.

PWYD is about informed citizens making decisions. So you need some data. Below is as much information as we imagine could be useful to you to help your decision. Alongside all of this will be the other half of the information – yours. You can’t pay more than how much you have in your pocket, in your training budget. There is no ‘right’ answer, we are not attempting to lead you to a specific figure. You can pay £0 for your ticket. If you have any questions that will help please give us an email on info@slunglow.org

Arts Council England have given us £100k to do the conference. We expect to spend the full grant on making and delivering the conference, including all food, cabaret costs but we have not budgeted a fee for Slung Low. Any payment to Slung Low will be on top of this.

We have space for 350 delegates.

Every speaker has been offered £345 plus expenses. The Slung Low company wage is £115 per day / £575 per week (this figure has a relationship to the average wage of the nation): everyone who works with and for us gets this.

For a similar conference event that we held in 2019, the average PWYD ticket contribution was £63.90.

50 tickets will be given away to targeted artists and future leaders who might not be able to afford to come otherwise. Half of those will be supported with travel and accommodation costs.

How Can I Get a Ticket?

Tickets can be booked through this LINK. When you book a ticket you can let us know about any childcare provision, access support and dietary requirements. You will only be able to book one ticket per computer. If you need an invoice to book a ticket that’s fine: book it for £0 on the portal and then email us at info@slunglow.org with details and we’ll sort you out. Once you’ve booked a ticket we’ll be in touch about hotel offers and other details. You can’t camp onsite sadly: just not practical sorry.

Anything else?

All the audio from the presentations and talks will be live-streamed from this PAGE

We did something a little like this before. Here is a video of that one. I wouldn’t expect us to be THIS lucky with the weather again in the mighty north of England.

https://www.slunglow.org/tcohm-audio-streams/?_cldee=aW5mb0BsYWhmLm9yZy51aw%3d%3d&recipientid=contact-64421b108cddea11a813000d3a0ba026-f6aeaf13293647268b583b134ebbbf05&esid=598bad9b-ea0f-ec11-b6e6-000d3ad678f0