It is the International Ceramics Festival 2025 this week over in Aberystwyth, Wales. A decade ago I volunteered at the 2015 festival (I also did the 2013 one) I filmed the whole festival and photographed it, between a 720p camera, an Ipod and an Ipad 2 trying to capture the whole thing, which I then uploaded once an hour to Social Media, in fact if you scroll to the beginning of their Instagram account the first 100 or so photos.
Honestly if I was doing it again I have a plan of how I would do it, with a team, and a hardwired connection and 4k cameras and action cameras and scheduling and finding time to actually take a break.
There are hundreds more photos but I am having difficulty finding where I have them saved this morning.
The festival is a massive undertaking, and really I was part of the team that moved stuff to where they were supposed to be, so in the two years I was there I moved everything from pottery, to scaffolding and prefabricated kilns around the site, and we didn’t always have trolleys as the site is built on a hill and there is only a staircase to move things around. There are ramps but only through the student union which wasn’t open when we set up the two years I was there.
The only video already uploaded on my youtube account is Peter Goodridge lighting the Lual Kiln just before she gave birth. Pete was responsible for putting me incharge of the social media and the live streaming, and at the end of the festival we talked about working together again on a project but my axiety got the better of me so the festival was the only time we met and I do regret having a panic trying to call him a few weeks later and hanging up after 2 rings and never trying again. I wish I had done something better to improve my life rather than hiding in a job from 2016-2020
So many years have passed and I wish I was there this weekend but I am not.
Lovely to see your work and especially a video of Big Pete.
He is sorely missed.
Wish you were coming to this year’s ICF….plan for the next?