Cowbridge Festival of Flowers

Brief

As part of an ongoing campaign with Vale of Glamorgan Council with the overarching aim of supporting high street traders and encouraging residents to shop local, jamjar was commissioned to create and deliver a summer event in Cowbridge town centre.

The idea

With the aim of helping Cowbridge ‘bloom’ back to life following COVID19, we created a Festival of Flowers. Taking place during August, the festival allowed traders to decorate their shopfronts, organise themed pop-up events and workshops, and where appropriate showcase their floral offerings. It culminated with a celebration on the August bank holiday weekend, with floral inspired street acts and entertainers, to celebrate the town in all its ‘blooming’ glory.

What we did

• Concept development – creating an idea and identity for the event.
• Planning and preparation – engaging traders, sourcing suppliers, sourcing and booking acts, supporting the creation of pop-up events, creating all event collateral.
• Promotion – giving traders the assets to promote the event themselves, as well as promotion via local media, outdoor advertising and social media.
• Event management – overseeing the event and managing suppliers and traders.

To ensure talkability and social media hooks throughout August, we commissioned a local florist to create fresh pop-up floral installations each week in the town, using local, sustainably grown flowers.

We liaised with traders to arrange pop up events and specials during the month. While traders were encouraged to create floral window displays, we also arranged for a window artist to decorate shop fronts in the town.

To ensure the event appealed to all audiences, we arranged a Flower Fairy Trail for children and families to take part in the town centre, which culminated in a ‘real-life’ Flower Fairy entertaining on the celebration weekend.

The Festival culminated on the bank holiday weekend, where acts including the Flower Pot People, Petal People, and a Flower Fairy entertained visitors to the town, while a String Quartet performed in the Physic Garden.

What we achieved

• Overarching Festival of Flowers spanning the whole of August in Cowbridge town centre.
• X6 spin-off workshops/events organised by local traders and partners.
• X4 pop-up flower installations spread across the month.
• X1 floral-infused gin created and sold.
• X30 shop fronts decorated.
• X6 outdoor banners displayed in and around the town to promote the event.
• X50 posters distributed and displayed by local traders and partners.
• X2 news stories distributed to local media.
• X29 promotional social media posts reaching 121,361 people.
• 100% of local residents and local traders surveyed had seen or heard about the Festival of Flowers.
• 89% of local businesses supported the event.
• 100% of people surveyed thought the town centre looked inviting during August.
• 75% of those surveyed shopped/ate on the high street as a result of the event.
• 100% of people surveyed agreed the event encouraged them to support their local high street traders.
• 77% said the event was a good way of encouraging footfall into the town centre.
• 67% said the event provided a good talking point in the town.

Lovely to see Cowbridge buzzing yesterday. There seemed to be a lot of visitors in town.