Goodfest 2019 from Behind the Lens
Followers of our blog and social media will be aware of our involvement as co-founders of Goodfest 2019, along with Ben Akers and Claire Wilkinson from MadeWith+ and Laura Giles from Cultivator Cornwall.
Goodfest 2019 took place on the 1st and 2nd Of May at the Bedruthan Hotel in Cornwall where a collective mix of creative minds came together to speak about one subject – Change.
I have been in and around the creative industry for a very long time, over twenty years if I show my age! I have been involved in big brands, medium brands, small brands, performance related pay incentives, bonuses, shares money, money, money etc..you get the idea. Many of the speakers I know well but had never heard the full story so there was much to look forward to.
Intro
From the moment our first speaker Mark Shayler (Pictured top) began his talk, I knew this was going to be different. He talked of past roles where he would try and spearhead change, often met with confrontation and/or worse. Unfazed he continues in this vein because that is who he is. Clearly, ahead of his time, his talk paved the way for the tone of the event.
There followed speakers all taking the stage and passionately speaking of their own journey to create a change, I heard from founders who had closed down their own successful companies because it wasn’t what they had envisioned. They forced a positive change through because it was the right thing to do for them and the bigger picture.
Mike Coulter brought his Tiny Habits Method to the stage which was inspiring to hear. Brought together by our love of the ocean and old vintage cameras, Mike and I finally got to meet after many failed attempts in the past!
This rich vein of thinking continued throughout the two days and I was lucky enough to be there behind the camera, shooting the entire event as it unfolded. You could say I had the best view of the event, with my lens focused on everything all the time, it wasn’t hard to have all that information filter through.
Shooting an event like Goodfest 2019 is all about telling the story, from the moment everyone arrives until the end. I wanted to capture emotions, laughter, seriousness and flow and we had that in an abundance. From a serious point of view, Goodfest 2019 is something we want to grow and run annually, its a brand in the early stages of development and my approach with brands is photography IS brand.
For those who love photography, I shot the event using two 5D III bodies and two lenses, an F4 70-200 and an F2.8 24-70 plus I shot a few rolls of film with my 1974 Canon AV-1.
Outro
Wrapping up the event was my friend and Surfers against Sewage CEO Hugo Tagholm, I have more than a passing interest in SAS, I’ve supported them and followed them since I was a teenager and I shot the first Global Wave Conference a few years back for them, which incidentally also took place in Cornwall.
Listening to Hugo recap the journey that SAS has been on from the very beginning and where they are now was nothing short of inspirational. A great way to close an event that WILL return next year 7th and 8th May 2020!
The next stage is we will be producing a Goodfest zine of the event for purchase and balancing the environmental impacts of producing Goodfest after our minimisation which we’ll release soon.
We will have more on Goodfest 2019 coming soon.
Written by Karl Mackie shooting the event with Leap
