Welcome To The Axis Festival Website

Axis Festival was a high calibre music and arts festival for Stoke on Trent, organised by professional people who lived locally, which ran for two years in May 2007 and May 2008. The event was staged to not only challenge the negative profile the city endures nationally but also to provide jobs, attract funding and generally have some fun!

Although the organisers were not paid for their services, the festival achieved much in only two years, bringing national and international acts to the city, including Guillemots, The Wombats, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Martin Roscoe, and Lemn Sissay amongst others. As well as staging some dynamic and diverse events for the community, it established a fringe festival in Burslem and hosted workshops on sound engineering, song-writing as well as a one day music industry seminar with representatives from Sony BMG and Universal. The One City project, a cross city reminiscing project, involved over 1000 local people of all ages and from diverse backgrounds.

Garnering support from local business, university, artists, promoters, arts funding bodies and media the event raised over £150,000 in cash and help in kind for the 2008 event and  was set to help promote Stoke on Trent in positive way to a broader national audience as well as provide much needed work for the local creative industries.

However the Festival organisers had engaged with Stoke on Trent city council, who had helped fund the 2008 event and had invited them to submit their plans for the future. Sadly following a resignation of the City’s Chief Executive the expected support for 2009 was not forthcoming and by the time the Festival organiers were informed of this decision there was not enough time to generate funding from other sources. The event has therefore been abandoned. Frustratingly had the council's intentions been made known earlier an alternative route could have been plotted and the project could have continued.

The City Council has to date not written formally to the organisers to offer an explanation of why the funding has not been forthcoming, although Cllr Hazel Lyth did say publicly through the local media, that the event didn’t fit the city council’s criteria, although there has been no expansion on this statement or any specific details offered.

If you are interested in finding out what the cultural offer for the city is to be over the next few years you may like to email Hazel Lyth (portfolio for arts and culture) hazel.lyth@tw1.stoke.gov.uk directly or Peta Murphey Bourke (art and cultural development officer) peta.murphy-burke@civic2.stoke.gov.uk or Tom McCartney (head of regeneration) tom.macartney@stoke.gov.uk and ask them to outline their plans and how funding will be awarded to the local creative industries and artists in the future.
 
The Axis Festival Team would like to thank all those businesses, artists, supporters, sponsors, partners and community groups who have made the last two years in the city so much fun. Your efforts, support and vision was much appreciated. Many genuine and lasting friendships have been forged and we are only sorry that The Axis Festival and those creative industries involved did not get the nurturing and care they so clearly deserved.  

The Axis Team