SCUNNY ZINE FEST
For anyone who doesn’t know, I was born in a small place called Scunthorpe in the north east of England. It’s my home town and even through I have travelled far and now live in the US for work it was my homestead for the formative years of my life. Since 2023 I have been luckily enough to be able to help insitigate, organise and fund a Zine Festival in that location every year since.
SZF (Scunny Zine Fest) was an initial idea I had when touring other Zine fairs and seeing the mix of success people had with such events and the challenges for people to gain access to something which should in theory be so simple.
Issue for DIY events stem from all sorts of things such as event organisers over charging to apply for a table, events taking commission from already underpaid artists, poor promotion, gate keeping of topics or venue spaces and yet, at its core, these events are for creatives and should be simple to set up and as open as possible.
I also encountered alot of the same phrases from people and how “they wished they had something like this” and if you’re from working class town that’s a phrase you know well. People spoke how they had issues applying for funding, getting permissions from councils, finding venues and the various red tape trying to get events going or keep interest and as such I decided to see if I could alter that perception at least for my own home town.
The event is in its third year now and and thanks to my collaborators Kat Spence and Zarah Torrington, Both people who live in the area and are vastly talented individuals I’m lucky to know. We’ve been able to make each year something special.
I find myself very lucky to live in the place I do with as many opportunities as I have and I know that’s not something which is common in places like Scunthorpe. Which is a shame as those spaces are filled with just as many brilliant, intelligent, creative people as an major city it’s just simply the opportunities are not there for them. As such I have some very clear goals with SZF:
- Keep the event free for all attending.
- Remain independently funded as to not answer to any organisation or institiution an a remain an independent event.
- Lift up as many voices as we can locally and nationally.
- Provide as many opportunities for creative catharsis as possible within the area and others if needed.
- Come back as many years as people will allow us to.
