Anja Fahlenkamp Anti-racism Officer - SOAS Students‘ Union Organising and Running Successful Interfaith Events SOAS Interfaith Music Festival April 2012 Anja Fahlenkamp Anti-racism Officer - SOAS Students‘ Union

Organising and Running Successful Interfaith Events SOAS Interfaith Music Festival 2012 Lessons from the festival & Tips for running your own event

SOAS Interfaith Music Festival 19 April 2012 All day festival Musical, poetry and dance performances by representatives of various faiths 2 panel talks about The role that music plays in different religions How music can be used as a tool for interfaith dialogue

Tips for organising and running successful Interfaith Event General organisation Funding Event preparations On the day Working with religions

General Organisation 1. Start planning early Depending on the size and nature of your event, make sure you give yourself sufficient time to plan everything SOAS IFMF: started to plan in October for Festival in April (half a year in advance)

General Organisation 2. Find a sensible date There might be a perfect venue for your event, but make sure you get the perfect date by booking early SOAS IFMF: Venue Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre had only three available dates: One in Term Break, two in Term 3 of which one on a Friday

General Organisation 3. Save everything, esp. contact information As soon as you start organising, make sure you create a list of all your contacts, even if they won‘t be directly involved in your event – they can still help you promote your event or be useful for future events Use email templates – saves time!

Funding 1. Venue SOAS IFMF: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre costs over 700 just for the rent, plus AV Try to find a venue that you can rent for free or at a small cost , e.g. in your Students‘ Union

Funding 2. Performers/Speakers Many speakers and performers (esp. musicians) may charge fees for their participation or ask for the reimbursement of their travel costs SOAS IFMF: all participants and performers were willing to “donate their participation“ to the good cause of the event

Funding 3. Find a Sponsor Convince potential sponsors that your event is in their interest (good cause/publicity) Events office, Students‘ Union (officer/society budget), charities, religious groups ... SOAS IFMF: SOAS Events Office paid for venue rent, AV support, posters & flyers; Equality & Diversity Office paid for instrument rental

Funding 4. Other ways to get money Have a charity party Cake sales Charge entrance fees on the day of your event SOAS IFMF: Due to the performers performing for free and Events and D&E Office covering all fees, there was no entrance fee to the festival

Event Preparations Advertisment Choose a recognisable logo/design Social networking media Posters and flyers University website (get outsiders to your event), students‘ union website Email everyone you know Ask organisations and institutions that work with faiths to forward your event information to their contacts

Event Preparations 2. Technical requirements Make a time schedule that includes technical requirements Get a team that will help you on the day, e.g. to move tables and chairs Inform your technical support team of the requirements as early as you know them SOAS IFMF: SOAS technicians only received finalised list two days before the event and had barely enough time to prepare

Event Preparations 3. Event opening Get someone important to open your event with a few words SOAS IFMF: SOAS Dean of Arts and Humanities/Head of Religious Studies held opening speech, followed by SOAS SU Anti-racism Officer

Event Preparations 4. Moderation Prepare moderation (cue cards are very helpful) If you are hosting a panel talk, prepare introduction of speakers, name signs, questions (in case the audience doesn‘t come up with any good ones)

On the day 1. Keep schedule Make sure there are enough buffers in your schedule Be brave and tell participants that they need to come to an end with their performance/ speech because you are running late SOAS IFMF: Due to late opening and overtime performances at some point we were running late over 1 hour!

On the day 2. Stay organised Always carry a copy of the schedule and technical requirements with you Some participants may run late... Make sure you have everyone‘s phone number and that they have your‘s

On the day 3. Smile!

Working with religions 1. Including/excluding Focus on big religions? (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism) SOAS IFMF: Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Hare Krishna, Baha‘i, Rastafari but: e.g. no Sikh What about Agnostics? Atheists?

Working with religions 2. Dialogue not Debate Aim of Interfaith should be to share values, traditions and views, not to convince anyone that one religion knows better or is “more right“ If you run a panel talk, make sure all speakers know about and agree with this rule

Working with religions 3. Try to have a well balanced programme If you host a panel, try to have speakers of various religions Keep performances diverse and alternating so that everyone‘s voice can be heard SOAS IFMF: Final performance was not attributed to any particular religions but was an interfaith performance by SOAS World Music Choir with general message of peace

Good Luck! Anja Fahlenkamp 298869@soas.ac.uk Look out for information about next year‘s SOAS Interfaith Music Festival !