BDS Sponsorship Ltd

Sponsorship News

British Arts & Science Festivals Association Annual Conference

Our CEO, Richard Busby, has been invited to speak at the British Arts & Science Festivals Association Annual Conference in Canterbury on the 23rd of October.

BAFA is a membership organisation, founded in 1976, which includes the widest span of arts and science festivals in the UK. These festivals include large international cultural events such as the Edinburgh International Festival and Brighton Festival through to small dynamic festivals such as the Corsham Festival in Wiltshire.   

BAFA organises and represents over 100 arts festivals across the UK covering a huge spectrum of the arts across the year. These include Roadshows that travel around the country in the spring and bring festivals of all sizes together with leading professionals in a unique active learning forum, and their Conference for Festivals, an annual two-day conference with a programme designed for everyone involved in the festival sector. It includes a series of talks, discussions, round tables and of course opportunities to socialise with festival peers.

BAFA enables festivals and festival professionals to become part of a community and network that aims to Inspire, Serve and Influence its members and the wider arts community.

Photo London: BDS recently completed a Sponsorship….

Photo London: BDS recently completed a Sponsorship Strategy and Business Plan for Photo London. Photo London will be a major international photography event that will take place at Somerset House, in the heart of London, from 21-24 May 2015.

Photo London is a unique photography event. It will feature a major international photography fair with up to 70 of the world’s leading photography galleries together with an innovative public programme supported by the LUMA Foundation. The public programme will open up new audiences for photography, showcase emerging talent and promote the concept of photography as an asset class.

BDS have been appointed by The Bristol Music Trust

BDS have been appointed by The Bristol Music Trust to develop a Sponsorship Strategy and Business plan for Colston Hall in Bristol.

Colston Hall is Bristol’s largest concert hall, presenting concerts and entertainment by major names in rock, pop, jazz, folk, world and classical music, stand-up comedy and light entertainment, as well as local choirs, orchestras and schools.

Audiences have been enjoying music at Colston Hall since 1867 and the building remains at the heart of cultural life in the city. In 2013 they hosted music from artists such as Emile Sandé, Robert Plant and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra; comedy from Harry Hill, Jimmy Carr and Billy Connolly; as well as being a key player in many of Bristol’s wider events including the Bristol International Jazz & Blues Festival, Slapstick Festival and Doors Open Day.

In 2017 Colston Hall will celebrate its 150th anniversary. Following the £20 million construction of a new foyer which opened in 2009 Colston Hall is now planning a further £45 million redevelopment to match its status as the primary performing arts venue in the West of England.

BDS Appointed by Gloucester County Cricket Heritage Trust

2015 is the Centenary of the death of W.G. Grace, one of the World’s most famous cricketers.

Gloucester County Cricket Heritage Trust, who are custodians of many of W.G. Grace artefacts, intend to build a museum at the Gloucester Cricket Ground honouring the great man as well as other famous cricketers such as Wally Hammond and Brian Lara, whose cricket artefacts they also hold.

GCCHT have appointed BDS Sponsorship to develop a sponsorship strategy to help them achieve this objective. BDS has developed an approach which, in Stage One, will be a national touring exhibition that visits a number of high footfall locations, such as railway stations and major shopping centres, so as to obtain maximum exposure both for The Museum and for a sponsor.

With the Australian cricket team arriving in the UK in 2015 for the Ashes interest in cricket will be very high.

It is also highly relevant as W.G. played in the now notorious test in 1882 where England’s defeat led to the proclamation of the death of English cricket and hence the birth of the term “The Ashes”. Indeed it is W.G. Grace whose gamesmanship is reputed to have fired up the Australian bowler Spofforth and whose subsequent 14 wickets in the test led to the Australians winning the match!