After three years living in Glastonbury, and half of that time during a global pandemic/ lockdowns, this is my home now. I feel like I am slowly, gently, fully landing on the physical earth here and beginning to grow strong roots. The town waking back up, to it's spirit and its eclectic community, to each other. And I feel that vibrancy, that energy and I know it is time for me land my work here in a more embodied myriad of ways.
A few weeks ago, some elders of the town created a wonderful new 5 day festival, The Rose Festival. It was a wonderful mix of workshops, concerts, meditations, a rose market and enlightening history walks - which you could pick and choose from -covering the magic and the mystery of the Rose, alongside its relationship to Glastonbury and Mary Magdalene. Remembering the Mary and Michael ley lines that run through the land here and the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus' uncle, who was said to have visited. The classes, talks and music were all shared by locals, and it was advertised with simple posters, leaflets and flyers in cafes, shops and windows around the town... They caught my attention immediately, and I attended at least 4 things across the 5 days.
We do have a noticeboard and local leaflet culture here in town, alongside the famous and physical Oracle Magazine, but this stood out.
Talking to one of the organisers, at the opening concert, they were telling me how they felt they hadn't done enough on social media, that they didn't understand social media and I could feel their stress over it. I reassured them that the physical flyers and posters had brought the town together, with numbers exceeding their imagination, without the need for lots of social media. Social was merely supporting the ground roots, rather than the other way round. Which can work in a place like this and was inspiring to see.
I also noticed the way I held onto the flyers and leaflets for the festival, carrying them in my bag to show to friends or taking a photo of them to text to a friend. It was different and without seeing it or sharing it on social media, it was more connective somehow - it was media of a social nature, yet not digital. Which got me thinking and dreaming into ideas.
I have had a lot of people asking me, how do we get the word out? How do we market ourselves without using social media? I'm a social media gal, and I still believe in it as a medium, but I am wanting to play and find out if we can develop a better balance. Not put all of our eggs in it's proverbial basket. I love the idea of local marketing, be it local papers, word of mouth or other ways of connecting to the community where I live. Not simply for sales or marketing my business, but to be part of the culture, to meet new people and cultivate a sense of belonging somewhere. London, where I lived for 17 years was so big, I moved around the city a fair bit too. When I was travelling in Ko Phangan and Bali, I wasn't really there long enough to form solid roots, although beautiful, and community existed there, somehow life has always been quite transient for me, in terms of locality.
Reflecting on the success and succulence of the Festival, I started to think about creating something physical to communicate my work. A flyer perhaps or postcards with the poems on (which is something I will still explore) ... When the idea for a Zine, using the content from my monthly newsletter, popped into my head. I had a flutter in my stomach and felt excited! I couldn't wait to have time to work on it. I I was heading out to meet up with a friend the next day, and had even made a start on it over breakfast! When the rain came down the following day, which happened to be a day, with no commitments in the diary, I snuggled on the sofa and got creating. The day after that, today in fact, it was in my hands.
I have dropped copies off at a couple of my favourite local Cafes, my regular hangouts of Cafe Sol and Rainbows End, plus to my friend Keith's shop, The White Rabbit and to EarthFayre and at my gym club, 40 Fitness Plus. 🧡 Leaving them in places I frequent, where I have a connection and community naturally, places people know me, my places and spaces in town. I will do this for the time being and see what happens from here...
My intention is to do them monthly alongside my email newsletter and see how it evolves, what it attracts and conversations it creates.
If you would like to subscribe and receive my monthly newsletter plus a PDF of the Zine, go here...
Opmerkingen