A Hybrid Yarn Festival

What’s a hybrid yarn festival anyway? This week we’re exploring the evolution of yarn festivals through the past year or so. Many of the festivals were forced to cancel their in person offer thanks to restrictions. Some have looked to alternative methods of putting on their event. After discussing the idea of online events this week, Unravel Festival’s hybrid approach piqued my interest. This combines an in-person offering at Farnham Maltings, with an online program of vendors and workshops. It is all hosted on a platform designed for this sort of event. Whilst it isn’t the first festival to approach shows in this way, (Vogue Knitting Live was one which pivoted very quickly to this format) it is the first UK show to trial this format.

Online Yarn Festivals

Having not been a fan of the endless parade of vendors on Instagram live as an alternative to the traditional yarn show, I was interested to see how they are looking to combine an in person element with an online offer. At Unravel, it will take the form of an in-person timed entry marketplace, along with an online vendor lineup. There will also be an online and in person workshop program, along with a series of online talks.

I think this planned-to-be-hybrid approach could add value in the somewhat crowded yarn show world. It will allow people to attend who wouldn’t otherwise. Travel distance, costs, crowded venues with poor accessibility are no longer a factor.

I’m personally not a huge fan of the endless livestream approach to online yarn shows. It doesn’t offer a great user experience for me. Too much relies on the vendor being good and comfortable on camera in order to be able to hold the audience’s attention. Space is needed to set up the virtual booth, along with decent internet speeds. Also, good marketing is required to get the sort of virtual footfall and sales that would make a time intensive approach like this pay off.

What about you – have you attended any virtual yarn shows? What format have they taken? Did you enjoy them? What would you change about them?

Let me know in the comments or email me.

Credits

Music for this episode is ‘I Need a Drink’ used with kind permission of Adam and the Walter Boys, and is available from iTunes.