Find Your Audience
I grew up in a large family, in a family that was always trying something new and going to interesting places. I have been very lucky in life, mainly thanks to my parents for instilling in me an interest in culture.
We never did (and still don’t) do anything by halves. Six children, 6 dogs, a 12-seater Land Rover … you get the picture.
One of the things that we do as a family is music festivals.
I went to my first festival when I was 9, with my parents. Cut to 20 years later, and I still love festivals. I go to at least two every summer, and one is always with my family. This is in The Netherlands, every summer. Here’s what this one looks like: all six “children” (we now range in age from 20 to 31), our parents, two cousins, a sister-in-law, a brother-in-law, an aunt and an uncle, plus some Dutch relatives who go to the same festival. It’s hilarious. It’s more crazy than most people would deem acceptable with their families around.
And it’s incredible fun.
I love music, I love being around friendly and fun people, and I don’t get wound up by the weather forecast.
There is not much else to festivals.
But maybe there is.
Festivals are made or broken by their audience.
This is why we keep going back to the festival we go to in The Netherlands. The people are fun, friendly, and calm — even in the small hours of the morning. They want to chat, they help you out, they smile.
This is what we wanted to create with The Good Life Experience.
This is our festival in North Wales where I have recently taken the job of Project Manager. The festival was started by Charlie and Caroline Gladstone (who, incidentally, are my parents), and Cerys Matthews and Steve Abbott. The people who come to The Good Life Experience have made it what it has become. We are in our 7th year, and each year we go back to the drawing board to see what we can improve and build on; we grow, we scale back, we try new things, and close down others.
2021 will be smaller than 2019
… because, again, we are trying something new.
We do it all with our audience in mind; folk come to TGLE for a weekend filled with good people and good experiences. This is what we try to give them. This astonishingly loyal group of people have allowed us to create other amazing events too. We have established Camp Glen Dye in Scotland alongside other exciting projects. We are thrilled to be planning even more new experiences that will be brought to life in 2021.
We see people come to the same place year-after-year for a long weekend. We watch them making new friends and chatting to each other while they are in the queue for a drink or waiting for a talk to start. We see them diving head first into new experiences or, literally, into The Lake at Hawarden.
We love seeing them laughing together, and keeping in touch after the events.
We have found an audience that loves encouraging themselves and others, that enthusiastically tries new things, and which relishes being outdoors. It is the ideal combination, because we love these things too.
The Good Life Experience is nothing without these amazing people.
{and what of the future, Tara?}
