Exciting new deaf festival happening in Derby this September: Derby Signfest 2019

Derby Signfest – What is it?

Derby Signfest is a partnership between Communication Unlimited, Derby Theatre and The Royal School for the Deaf Derby, with a representative from each organisation working closely together to organise the festival. We have Alison Jones, Chief Executive Officer for Communication Unlimited; Lauren Barkes-Nickolds, Programme & Community Engagement Coordinator for Derby Theatre and Elizabeth Corbett, Education Assistant for The Royal School for the Deaf Derby all of which make up part of the Board of Trustees for Derby Signfest alongside Donna Mullings, Actress & Presenter and Paul Hezelgrave, Labour Councillor Derby City Council. We are also supported by The British Deaf Association, Derby City Council, Quad and This is Derby. The list of companies supporting the festival just keeps growing.

What does Derby Signfest entail exactly and how did the idea arise?

Derby Signfest is a week-long festival, in Derby, celebrating and raising awareness of British Sign Language and bringing communities together! The idea for the festival arose from the fact that Derby has the second largest Deaf community outside of London, and many people – namely hearing people – had no idea of this. This was made apparent from a meeting Alison was attending over two years ago where she was speaking about famous Deaf people from Derby, which no one else in the room was aware of. This highlighted a need to celebrate the rich Deaf culture, history & heritage in Derby and raise awareness in our city. So Alison pulled together a team to start looking at what could be done and Derby Signfest was born. At the same time Derby Theatre was looking to develop their work with the Deaf community and increase opportunities for Deaf people to be involved with the Theatre, so they came on board.

When is the festival happening and who is it aimed at?

The festival is happening from the 9th to the 15th September 2019. It is aimed at everyone, young & old, Deaf & hearing, with an aim to unite communities. We are working with many schools in the Derby area and trying to reach the Deaf people in mainstream schools so they can learn more about their Deaf identity, but also to connect with hearing children to increase their awareness and involve CODA’s.

Can you tell us what’s involved in the week?

It would be easier to answer what isn’t involved in the week, we have so many different activities happening. We have activities for schools including sports, theatre and dance activities. We have a pop up Deaf history museum with stories, images and artefacts from Deaf history. We have Theatre shows, comedy shows, family fun days, social events, mini BSL film festival, subtitled films, a variety showcase, make up and body confidence workshops, Deaf awareness and BSL taster session, signsong flash mob, tours of local places including Pride Park Stadium, Royal Crown Derby and even a Ghost tour of Derby. This is not the full list of events but hopefully gives a taste of what’s involved! Now that the information is getting out there we have more people and organisations contacting us wanting to include events in the festival. You can see a full break down of public activities happening on our website.

Why should deaf people who live outside of the Midlands travel to attend?

From what we can see there are no other festivals happening in the UK for Deaf people that have a focus not only on raising awareness of and celebrating British Sign Language, but also looks to unite Deaf and hearing people to help with social mobility and to have fun together whilst celebrating the beautiful language of BSL. Not only this, but we are the only Deaf festival (that we are aware of) in the UK which has such a broad range of activities; we are not limited to being a sports festival or an arts festival, but a community festival. You might not like Theatre, but maybe you like history, or maybe you like film, or you just want to socialise, we have something to suit all tastes. We also think Deaf people should visit us so they realise there is more happening in Derby than just Deaf Rammies Pub every 2 months.

Are there any fees involved or is it funded / free for participants?

Some of the activities do have charges, but many of the activities in the festival are free, including the Deaf Museum, Family Fun Day, Derby Theatre Open Day and many of the workshops & training sessions. We also have the Derby Signfest signsong that anyone can take part in for free, even if you aren’t able to make it to Derby for the festival. Then the events that have charges are the Theatre shows, films, and interpreted tours. We have tried to make activities as cheap as possible to ensure it is affordable so have only charged where necessary to cover our costs.

What are the biggest challenges in organising the festival? How have these been overcome?

This is our first festival, so everything has been done from scratch, the planning, the paperwork, the funding, everything. It really has been a partnership approach and would not have been possible without our partners support, it has been a huge learning curve for everyone involved. Of course one of the biggest challenges has been funding, setting up as a charity and applying for funding with no previous track record of delivery has been tricky, but luckily funders have believed in what we are wanting to achieve and have got behind us.

One of the biggest learning curves for us was writing our Signsong, between the working group (Deaf & hearing.) We tried to write it, but of course what visually and poetically worked in BSL for the song, did not always translate into lyrics that worked for it to be sung in English, so there was quite a lot of going back and forth with that. We then had to find someone who could sing and compose the music for the song and put it all together with the Signsong. With hard work and determination we got there in the end. You can find our Signsong on our website, why not learn it yourself, with a group of friends, colleagues or family and join us by posting on social media either a live or pre-recorded video of your signing along, at 9:30am on Thursday 12th September.

Is the festival accessible to hearing friends and family too?

Every event in the festival is accessible to Deaf and hearing people, with some events in BSL with English interpreter and some spoken events with BSL interpreter. We have also tried to ensure that all events are held in a space which is accessible to those in wheelchairs or who may have limited mobility.

Are there any famous deaf faces involved to entice us further?!

We have many well-known Deaf people coming to the festival including; Gavin Lilley Deaf comedian, Donna Mullins doing BSL storytelling, Wendy Daunt historian for the Deaf museum, Robin Ash leading BSL taster & Deaf awareness sessions, a Deaf football player who played for Derby County (come and find out who this is!) Deaflympians who are attending the school’s sports festival, Kellie Moody Make-Up Artist, Trudi Collier running Body Confidence workshop, the famous Derby Deaf Quiz is back for one night and not only that, but there is a rumour of a Deaf ghost, come and help us find it!

What are the future plans for Derby Signfest?

This is the very first one and a pilot for us, our plan is to make this year as best as it can be, then we will go through a period of evaluation to work out what did and didn’t work for the festival and how we could improve for future festivals. Once we have gone through evaluation we will decide on how often we think we will run the festival, which will also depend on how many people engage with the festival this year. We think it would be every 2 or 3 years, but of course as always it will be funding dependent.

Find out more about Derby SignFest by viewing their website or following them on social media;

www.derbysignfest.co.uk

Facebook – @DerbySignfest

Twitter – @DSignfest