A major new sponsorship deal between a consortium of local festivals and Nexen Petroleum U.K. Limited has been announced today.
Aberdeen Festivals, made up of 10 of the region’s top events, has secured an exclusive headline partnership with Nexen that will run throughout 2017.
The new relationship sees Nexen offer substantial backing to the local festivals consortium which attracts over 170,000 visitors each year and supports the company’s determination to support the local arts, cultural and science sectors in the city and across Aberdeenshire.
The new relationship was announced at a first ever cultural ‘Catalyst’ conference being held alongside SPECTRA festival in Aberdeen. The conference aims to establish productive ways to support the artistic community in Aberdeen and grow international connections between the cultural sector locally and the rest of the world, as well as exploring international collaboration opportunities.
Mike Backus, Nexen’s Vice President, Operations U.K said:
Giving back to the community is deeply rooted in Nexen’s values and arts and culture are a vital part of the fabric of these communities. Each of the ten festivals brings something unique to the year-round programme of events, not only adding to the vibrancy of the area, but offering a fantastic showcase for the creativity and talent of Aberdeen city and shire. We’re delighted to be supporting Aberdeen Festivals this year.
Steve Harris, chair of Aberdeen Festivals and CEO of VisitAberdeenshire said:
‘This is an exciting partnership between a global energy business that recognises the importance of investing in local communities through support of our wide-ranging festivals and cultural offering. As the region continues to increase its profile as an excellent place to live, invest, work and study this partnership between all the festivals and Nexen underlines the importance of working together to achieve common goals. For us these goals include supporting the festivals to continue to deliver a series of high quality events so that we can all benefit from living and working in an exciting, vibrant and creative place.’
The 10 members in the festivals group are; SPECTRA, Aberdeen Jazz Festival, Look Again Festival, May Festival, Aberdeen International Youth Festival, TechFest, True North, NEOS, DanceLive and Sound. The festivals run throughout the year and include everything from science to new music, contemporary dance to visual art and design. All the festivals have a number of free to access events and many have educational and community based projects as part of the programme.
Aberdeen City Council Leader Jenny Laing said: “Catalyst Conference is bringing industry leaders from across the globe to Aberdeen when it is at its most vibrant. The discussions that will take place over the two-day conference will shape a series of follow up projects that will influence the arts community locally, but also on a national and international scale.
“The economic landscape of Aberdeen is shifting and as it does we must look to our cultural offering to enhance the changing economy of our city. Nexen’s partnership with Aberdeen Festivals is an excellent example of the commitment that our local and national partners have to the development and sustainability of culture in the north-east.
“The Aberdeen Festivals collective demonstrates the positive impact that collaborative working has in enhancing the long-term economic prosperity of Aberdeen and the wider region by attracting visitors to the city.”
The SPECTRA conference runs from today, Friday Feb 10 and tomorrow Saturday Feb 11 and is now sold out.
SPECTRA Festival, the city’s award winning festival of light has been running since Thursday, Feb 9 and will be on until Sunday evening, Feb 12 at various sites across the city. SPECTRA festival is free to attend.
The next festival taking place is Aberdeen Jazz Festival which kicks off on Wednesday March 15 and runs until Sunday, March 19.