1. 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

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

3. 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

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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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 templates – saves time!

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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)

19. 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!

20. 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

21. On the day
3. Smile!

22. 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?

23. 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

24. 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

25. Good Luck!
Anja Fahlenkamp Look out for information about next year‘s SOAS Interfaith Music Festival !