You Are Here | Help Make the Magic Happen!

Thanks for coming to You Are Here!

It was really important to us not to 'sell' your attendance to you, or think of the transaction in terms of 'tickets'. For this reason, we simply asked people to register that they were coming so we could keep in touch and ensure we had a tab on audience numbers. 

However, you may wish to retrospectively demonstrate the value that you felt You Are Here represented in terms of its enjoyment and impact or just as a recognition of the artistry or craft. If this is the case, we would welcome your contribution towards 'helping make the magic happen' across the project - from Penzance to Par, Looe to Bude.

Feel free to skip down to the bottom to do this  - or may you be interested to read more of the rational behind our decision making in the paragraphs before that.

In any case - thank you!

Buying 'tickets' and our approach to a broad definition of 'access'...

We've developed this event with the public realm in mind. As we see it, both those attending and taking part will, for a short while, simply inhabit a space that day-to-day is freely available to the public. And on the night of You Are Here, this will be no different. The place chosen has informed the creative process from the outset and will undoubtedly play a ‘main role’ in conjuring magic on the night. We hope it might invite you to consider it differently as a result.

With this in mind, it did not feel right to have any barriers or gated entry or to 'sell tickets' for the event. As a piece of work about the local area, made with members of the local community and taking place in outdoor space freely available, we didn't want there to be a transactional exchange in order to access the experience.

This approach also means that You Are Here is potentially extra-accessible for those in the locality who (1) might be passing/turn up on the night; (2) who might not be able to afford to come or want to risk limited resources on something like this; (3) who might not make up a typical audience for an event of this kind.

However, we are still asking you to 'book tickets’. We're doing this so that we can keep you updated about the event and to help us learn more about who the You Are Here audience is. A ticket won't be a condition of entry but we would love the chance to 'check you in' at the event - just so we can keep track of our audience numbers and who came etc.

There is of course a cost to making work like this. This is why when you 'checked out' you may have noticed that we included an option for you to make a contribution towards making the magic happen. We know that some might neither have the means nor  inclination and we certainly wouldn't be judging! However, we are happy to welcome your generosity - particularly if you consider yourself someone who supports the arts in Cornwall, or (someone who might still be reading at this point!) and can hear the heart behind our thinking. Whilst it might sound odd for us to be pedantic about the semantics around ticketing/access - we have felt it important to separate things out... a stake in the ground establishing our ethos and mission.

Free outdoor arts in the public realm are often funded civically and sometimes in conjunction with commercial sponsors. Whilst we have received public third sector funding from Arts Council England and FEAST - we would usually be expected to ticket our events, sales of which would make up a percentage of the project’s budget. However, in line with what we've tried to express above ie. an emerging commitment to a long-term vision of other similar projects that animate the public realm - if you were happy to run with our rationale of 'free access to You Are Here' but also wanted to show your support by donating towards production costs incurred (thereby helping us balance the budget) please do!