Cultural eXchanges founder reflects as festival turns 23

Festival founders and De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) alumni have looked back on the history of Cultural eXchanges at an in-conversation event as the festival turns 23.

As part of this year’s Cultural eXchanges festival, Leicester Comedy Festival founder, Geoff Rowe sat down with Tony Graves who founded the festival in 2001 to delve into its history.

The pair, who studied Arts and Festivals Management at DMU, engaged in a conversational style interview in front of an audience in DMU’s Clephan Building.

Talking about how the festival began, Tony said: “I was working in the arts and a job I had didn’t work out and Chris Maughan, who was the course leader at DMU at the time, reached out to see if I wanted to apply for a teaching post on the arts management course.

“It involved putting together a week-long programme of events which was initially called Clephan Events Week and was a reflection of the faculty and its courses, so it mostly had an academic focus.

“I had the idea to rebrand it as Cultural eXchanges and extend it to the public so that it wasn’t just an ivory tower that students came to.

“The idea took root and people supported it and over the years it’s grown with the help of colleagues."

Fast forward 23 years later and the festival is still going strong, much to Tony’s surprise. He said: “In the early years, it was about let’s see how it goes. It was a labour of love but amongst all the challenges, it was worth it because it’s what I like to do.

“There have been different stages of growth. I think sometimes it was more successful in terms of its audiences and the people that they’ve managed to bring in but it’s always stayed true to its roots.

“It’s great to see that people still have affection for Cultural eXchanges and that it’s still got a place in people’s hearts. It feels like there’s a sense of legacy.”

Each year the festival is ran and managed by Arts and Festival Management students, many of whom had come along to the event to hear about Tony’s experiences and the struggles that helped to shape the festival’s identity. He said to this year’s organisers: “Congratulations on what you’ve achieved, it’s heart-warming to see how its evolved and has its own identity.”

As part of the discussion, Geoff shared his similar experiences of setting up a festival. He said: “If I hadn’t have had that opportunity when I was studying at DMU then there would never have been a Leicester Comedy Festival.

“I think this real-life opportunity that DMU gives its students is critical because you can learn so much in a lecture theatre or seminar room but until you actually do it, you don’t really know what it is like.

“I’m genuinely so pleased that DMU carries on supporting Cultural eXchanges because it’s a fantastic opportunity for real-life experience for students.”