I’d Rather Gather, Wouldn’t You?
Have you ever been to an event and thought to yourself, “I could do this, but I’d do it differently, better even”? I have, but I hadn’t the wherewithal, confidence nor the motivation. These two young ladies on the other hand, have all of the above and much more. Maribel Pan, originally from Spain and Romi Cruañas, originally from Argentina, have done just that.
After working on festivals together for several years they decided to put their skills together.
“With Romi’s artistic skills and my organizing skills, we thought we would make a strong team. The initial motivation or inspiration was really to organize a festival that includes all types of arts at the same level. Theater, circus, music, workshops, food, paintings, sculptures… so we want Rather Gather to be a venue for all types of arts to come together and also for performers and non-performers (like me) to have an opportunity to learn from each other and bring people together as a community, we do believe art is a great path to peace and understanding.” – says Maribel.
Maribel also told me that proceeds from Rather Gather will go to help those in need. “At first we thought about train the trainer workshops in developing countries, however, when the refugee’s crisis hit Europe and the camps were built, we thought Rather Gather could provide some small amount of relief through the Arts, and by raising funds to purchase and deliver Arts supplies to the camps”.
I asked Maribel if things so far have gone to plan, has it gone much differently than expected?
“So, not really, everything is going more or less as we thought they would , what has impressed us greatly is the level of collaboration we’ve received from people who don’t even know us and have just jumped on board to help.
Of course there are many things we didn’t think about at first, in terms of production and logistics, but they are all coming together nicely with the superb help we are getting from the more experienced people that are now involved.
Trying to put a multi-disciplinary festival together is not an easy thing to do and our lack of experience in this field made us overlook some planning details. but as life is, this is a learning journey and every success and failure continuously teaches us lessons to take on board for the next one!”
Finally I asked, What will you do differently with Rather Gather 2?
“It’s hard to say as for sure, by the end of next week we will have a longer list of things we will do differently, but as of now, I would probably give more weight to the research and planning process, investigate more options for fundraising and possibly seek out sponsorship.
As anything in life, this is a learning curve, and it is alive, we do learn, succeed and fail every day, the important lesson here is to never give up”.
Now it is easy to see how these two Ladies are going to be a success. They have the attitude, confidence and gumption to win, and win they will. The Rather Gather Festival will be held this weekend in Stradbally, Co. Waterford. From Friday 6pm to Sunday at 12pm. It is going to be Rather Special so don’t miss it.
Tickets are available to buy from Eventbrite on this link. Have fun, play safe and who know’s I might even bump in to you.
More information https://rathergather.wordpress.com/
About the Author
Gorjus Greg Gregory Donaghy: Homeless, unemployable, misanthropic alien life form with a penchant for stating the obvious. Follow @GregoryDonaghy
