SCUNNY ZINE FEST
Scunthorpe Zine Fest was founded in 2023 as an aside to the Coke-Oven Zine database I founed in 2021 it is to my knowledge at least the first Zine event put on in the town. I wanted to expand what coke-oven could do and in exploring that I started investing small funds from my own personal money into Zine events. Sending some funding to local Zine fests in Lincolnshire and York and liasing with intiatives where I can. This sparked my interest to see if I could put on a similair event event at a low cost whilst not being present in the location as if you do any reading online or reach out to funding councils they often to suggest that it’s an impossible battle.
Scunthorpe is my home town and I think coming from there is a large part of what made me so resiliant to change and critical of changes many institutions consider to be “progress” or “redevelopment”. I have seen no end of movements and business decisions which have negatively impacted the space and the people and watched as over time many small towns especially those home to large industry in the UK have been deprived of oppertunity and resources to be anything other than “factory or office” towns.
My aim with the event is to give people the space, the opportunity and agency to create and express their voice and to prove to Art and Council institutions that such a venture does not need to be financially burdening or over engineered.
We believe Zines are a great way to do that.
With some help from Kat Spence a local artist with a career in Museum curation and Zarah Torrington a local Zine and Book enthusiast with a career in print media we’ve built something which is streamlined and open to the community and are hoping to build upon that each year.
