Normal? Festival of the Brain 2023 was brought to you by Living Words and Screen South.

In 2023, building on 6 years of festival delivery, we co-curated a hybrid 2-day Normal? Camp. Science, high quality arts and people with lived experience exploring ‘post’-Covid collective grief via workshops, creative pairings between the Normal? community with artists/scientists, audio creation, talks, performances, and best practice sharing.

Evaluations over the years show that this festival has the power to positively transform an individual’s perception of themselves and has the potential to positively improve a person’s vision of their future. Friendships, employment, and new career paths have all come from new connections made during festivals, united through exploring our brains and beings.

“There's a crack where mental health and creativity converge - it can be a breakdown or a breakthrough. Normal Festival offers new ways to imagine suffering, pain and isolation. It's a lifeline to many who are struggling with fear, loss, uncertainty. I always leave feeling more alive, curious, creative and hopeful. And after this past year, that's a hell of a lot.” ~ Normal? 2021 attendee. 

The Normal? camp was developed to take a new approach to see what might be next for the festival. Until the pandemic, Normal? had partnered with Creative Folkestone & Folkestone Fringe. During the pandemic, we pivoted to deliver an open space only/virtual festival in Oct 2020 - end Mar 2021, to respond to concerns regarding winter mental health decline during lockdowns, and rising to the challenge of tech. In mid 2022, we tested the water for community interest regarding the festival continuing, based on connections with organisations, individuals, and those expecting and wanting the festival. In 2023 post-lockdown, people emerged into what feels like a different Folkestone. As the new homebuyers movement collided with the cost of living crisis; societal power imbalances threatened to turn people against each other (it still does). Although arts engagement numbers for our usual type of Normal? Festival would go up, due to many comfortable with accessing culture - we questioned as Normal? has always done, what would this be doing in terms of engaging the hardest to reach in our town? In 2023, we urged to take people out of the usual festival locale and into a field with a vista of the town. The existing Normal? community across digital means, alongside attendees at group meetings since Sept ‘22 explored the festival need together. We coalesced on the camp idea with the theme of collective grief, and titled it, Normal? Field Trip. The premise was supported by and shaped with, festival partners; cross-sector supporters; Living Words’ project members across LGBTQIA+ groups, dementia carers, groups of overlooked CYP, and other survivors; plus local mental health networks & arts and health networks.

For Normal? Field Trip, local individuals were paired up with an artist or scientist to co-create a piece including their lived experience - taking their creativity further than previously imagined. Free buses would drive people from town to the field and back again as an always-available service. All events were Pay What You Decide (inspired by Slung Low’s financial model), due to our aims to engage all people from across town in this pandemic-aware, post-austerity regeneration period. Through Normal’s classic ‘think-in’ model, we consulted with our community group, advisory board, and mental health organsations to reach this decision. As a hybrid event too, developed in collaboration with partners Screen South - events and artistic outputs would be accessible online, with the addition of telepresence robots to enable virtual attendance with agency.

We wanted to support the community to run a new style festival, to digitally position us to reach more people where they are, create new opportunities and employment, and positively impact the growing ‘arts in health’ sector.

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Unfortunately, Normal Field? Trip had to be cancelled last minute due to an extraordinary set of circumstances. See the public statement below. This left us having to re-group, redo, and pivot plans to still reach our outcomes. We further fundraised to fill the gap, with our partners old and new responding and supporting our situation, and members of the Normal? community fundraising themselves. Our volunteers also increased in response to our need. What this situation did, was demonstrate to us how embedded we are, and how, as one volunteer said “You get out for Normal? because it’s the one festival that has really changed so many of our lives.” This challenge impacted the increase of people and communities reached. With our new plans came increased outputs, more partners, cross-sector involvement, and increased sharings, meetings, and events. Normal? Field Trip became -

1 x community event in September 23
4 x creative output sharings across Kent & Medway with KCC/public health partners, including winning Kent Mental Health & Wellbeing Award
1 x weekend of events off the back of community meetings & workshops - Normal? A Series of Fortunate Events, which included:
Community Living Advent output sharing
Specific neurodivergent events including: Level 3 Gaming festival partnering & engaging with Beacon SEN school; ADHD/Autism talks; Disco Neurotico partnering, for them to try out their touring disco for 2024
A focus on AI & VR via installation, performance & talks - partnering with UCA
Film making workshops with films shared live
Creative pairings work showcased across Kent & Medway, in weekend events & sharings, and opportunities for employment and social connectedness, including pairings with a young refugee and drag queen dancer for example
Plus, opportunities to reflect on Covid and mental health impact, and sharing creativity

“I am Neurodiverse and work in Neurodiversity and mental health, and have spent a lot of time at 2 conferences recently, this one event was more in-depth and helpful than anything at the conferences, due to the lived experience and creativity at the heart of this.” - Attendee, ADHD/Autism Acceleration event

“... it's brought up lots of unfinished conversations that the collages I've made were about in the first place. It's led me to try and reach out to people and pick up some of those conversations” - Creative pairing/volunteer

“I was made homeless in August of this year, I am technically still homeless. On paper it looks diabolical. Coming here this evening has given me hope.”

“Specifically, from my point of neurodiversity, I think it’s important to create a space for people to talk about the way that their minds work. I’m certainly going to share Normal? with other friends & colleagues... The combination of having quite concrete scientific information alongside creative information from the artist’s side.”

“I feel like Normal? tries to engage with people. Whether it’s to do with neurodiversity or with members of the community who don’t feel included in the culture stuff.”

“I loved that workshop, I didn’t think I could do it but I did.”

For the longer term, Normal?’23 enabled:

People who don't access the arts to see themselves as creative, and how this makes a positive difference to their lives and relationships. Plus, employment for isolated community members - following creative pairings, which are still flourishing now. A reported feeling of being part of the local community by neurodivergent locals was shared and continues. And for Living Words to see and hone the potential of their co-developed app which teaches the Listen Out Loud method. There is interest for this to be shared internationally, further bolstering Living Words’ future strategy of sharing their creative practice more widely with the world.

We hope Normal? 2023 helped those who came, by seeing their place in the town and their future within it, differently than before. Nothing could have happened without our wonderful volunteers, partners, contributors, audiences, and funders/fundraisers.

What’s next? Stay tuned across the Normal? socials and Living Words news outlets.

Normal? Festival of the Brain’s December events:

Fri Dec 8th, 3 - 5pm
Glassworks, Mill Bay, Folkestone, CT20 1JG
Pay What You Decide

The Neurodiverse Neverland, Level 3: Neurodiverse Gaming Festival 

Come along to create a 3D model of your favourite object, or from your imagination, and then see it inside a video game! Created and run by neurodiverse gamers Level 3, join them as they open their work out to the public, following a day of working with the Beacon school. 

Normal? Field Trip: Statements