Speaking to us from the local lockdown in Leicester, Festival Producer and Creative, Sam Javid, still managed to stay true to his energetic brand. Having just returned from a stag do, outside the city, he commented: “there are a few stories...” Clearly, he knows the value of true comradery! In fact, Sam is the newly appointed creative producer for the South Asian Arts festival, An Indian Summer, and produced the country’s biggest Comedy Festival, Leicester Comedy Festival, prior to this: the trajectory has demanded nuanced social sensitivity alongside the book smarts. Sam emphasised: “people want quality experiences now. They don’t just want to spend on another new throw pillow or a plant in their living room. They want to be immersed; engaged in an exciting atmosphere. You’ve got to be ready to evolve and respond to this.” It’s an idea Sam has applied successfully during the time of Covid-19 for the Indian Summer Festival: “of course, the usual quirky option would have been to have an outdoors cinema, but we adapted to the world of online. I created a concept called Sofa Cinema where we screened the film Bend It Like Beckham. People could further explore the themes of the film in an interactive way e.g. we had an Aloo Gobi-making tutorial available, and a famous sports star who spoke to the audience about diversity in sport.”
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The Festival also featured a Zoom session with popular comedian, Nish Kumar, who addressed festival attendees from the exclusive luxury of his bedroom! “It was great to be able to introduce the innovation and humour I love so much,” Sam commented: “for me, reaching people through art is positive disruption.” Indeed, Sam’s work has a running theme of social freedom through it, explored through the vibrant vector of multicultural celebration. One of his first roles after graduating from De Montfort University with a Degree in Arts & Festivals Management was Producer of Liberty UK: formerly named Night of Festivals. This event was initially created to commemorate Latin American Independence before evolving into the general homage to democracy and freedom that it is today. Sam elaborated: “based in the Midlands, the festival was meant to bring Latin American communities together. It was centred on the cultural theme of Carnival which subverts the norm while also being bold and colourful. That became an entry point to welcome other cultures and local communities and people who might not otherwise have cared. When you have a giant skeleton and 32 drummers walking through the city, you’re going to ask yourself: what is this about? We started in Nottingham, but then started moving around the country to different areas including Hounslow, Lincolnshire and even Southbank. Each time I found myself working with newer and different people to find out what liberation meant to them. There was a massive South Asian celebration at some point too. Recently, the Festival had been renamed to address our immediate political landscape of increasing division and xenophobia. I’ve found the open, creative approach to be a wonderful way of empowering people through the realm of every day.”
Rather than preach to the audience, Sam promotes an intuitive, associative method to help navigate people through the intersectional world of today’s politics: “I call it crafting a ‘Rabbit Hole’ Programme. As well as lively activities, I make sure there is a series of interconnected relevant topics that allow people to investigate their interest if they want to.” In addition to staging events specific to Brexit and free speech, for example, Liberty UK also commissioned artist, Hugo Farmer, to create a display that coincided with International Women’s Day. “He collects newspapers and spray paints on top of them. There were a variety of articles on different female identities collected, from Page Three Models to women in business. We then invited him to look at these different images and give an evocative response that would, in turn, create a dialogue.” The women’s movement has become gradually more polarised with the ideological rift of the time. Similarly, as well as celebrating South Asian heritage, Indian Summer Festival also consisted of a female Asian panel, comprised of the two cultural Feminist networks, South Asian Sisters Speak &Two Brown Girls, which acknowledged dual subjectivity. “Nowadays you just mention the concept of politics and it stresses people out: the Festivals might not have the gravitas of The Extinction Rebellion, but they invite a lot of people in.” Sam’s active art then not only connects people to current issues, but also inspiringly allows them to invest in them.
This ethos extends to Sam’s imaginative use of geographic space which also characterises his productions: “For Liberty UK, we took over shops units in Leicester to stage the shows. For Leicester Comedy Festival, we’ve had secret performances where people are taken around on a bus, shows in ice-cream parlours, and comedy staged in the dark. I love the raw style where comedians might be trying out their material for the first time. Curated shows are great, but with immersive, grass-roots performance you know are always getting an experience that’s unique. It’s always different and honest, and so paradoxically very personal.” Indeed, traditional theatre often preserves a one-sided distance between performer and viewer, which can be strangely disenfranchising. “My overarching aim is to make people fall in love with where they live: whether it is a big bustling city or a quiet town. I want the crowd to feel good.” And so, as well as showcasing a novel range of bright ideas, Sam’s gleeful portfolio perfectly highlights the wider meaning of sense of belonging. Deeper than simply being able to comfortably negotiate a physical place, it is the state of fundamentally feeling emotionally and further influential at home: having healthy social agency is key. “I’ve just launched my new company, No Fixed Abode,” the producer aptly concluded: “it’s a networking platform that brings together different creative talent across the country to be able to contribute to a single local event. From content management to graphic design, NFO facilities the integration of otherwise disparate skill-sets so that people can work on the projects they really want to do.” Finally, Sam pertinently harnesses the constructive power of national community.
How did you get into the world of Production?
I grew up in Bristol, and my Grandma and I would sit and choose different plays to go and see as a child. It made theatre-going the norm. I also loved going to different Green field festivals such as Womad and Glastonbury. I enjoyed thinking about what managing those big events would be like. When studying for my degree, there was a combination of art theory with business so that I got a more artistic idea of what organising a festival would be. I wanted a Festival of Ideas: I’ve always been creative and this is how it’s manifested. I enjoy creating a unique experience for the audience.
Do you have to be good at maths?
No, not necessarily, but you do have to be a good lateral thinker, and invested in the problems that you are solving.
Is organising a Festival like getting ready to throw a massive party?
There’s more to it than that, but it’s definitely fun and there is a social dimension to it.
Production is an area that is often mystified: you do think about skills such as being good with money, or organising events. Tell us a bit more?
The title ‘producer’ does have an odd allure to it, but it is just another way to be artistically creative, and there are so many roles available e.g. in television and film, and covering different sectors e.g. content management online which is about managing a variety of live streams, or creating content which plans the audience’s journey. I’m hoping to do a podcast through my company No Fixed Abode, which will talk through these different options. There are hundreds of roles!
Tell us a highlight from Leicester Comedy Festival?
There was a show I created called Hotel Du Comedy which involved only 10 audience members who were taken to a 5-star hotel in Leicester where there would be different comedians doing shows from intimate rooms. You might hear someone in the bathroom, cooing: “come innnn”. It would unsettle a middle-class audience! But inventive immersive theatre is a great way to be truly memorable! We had shows in law courts and dungeons too! We may not have had huge celebrities, but the acts were always original.
www.no-fixed-abode.org
www.libertyukfestival.com
