What is Collective

Collective is an attempt to build a new community, one comprised of our audience, our workers, our entertainers, and our educators.

Inspired by what has come before us, this is a re-imagination of the festival scene, our community spaces, and culture at large. 

By being a community led, community owned organisation we are putting the power to determine our space into the hands of the people it is benefiting.

This is in direct contrast to the existing model of corporate culture, designed only to put as much money as possible in the hands of a few.

Our guiding principle

At the heart and foundation of Collective is a very basic principle

From each according to their ability, to each according to their need

What this means is we ask everyone to contribute what they feel able to, while at the same time providing everyone with what they require to comfortably exist within, and contribute to, this community. 

Practically this means we ask everyone to perform some role at Collective, we don’t have the standard ‘customer / volunteer’ divide. 

We consider what barriers this may pose, for example not everyone may be able to contribute their talents for free and will understandably require some form of payment for their craft. 

We will always believe someone's stated needs, and provide what we are able to. 

In more detail

Democracy is at the heart of our decision making:

We are working to make sure there are ample opportunities, both online and in person, for our community to have their voice heard and ideas implemented in Collective.

Fair and equitable pay for everyone who requires it:

The events industry is not full of money, especially not at the grassroots level. That doesn’t mean those who contribute don’t deserve to be paid for their labor. Some of us may be able to provide our labor for free, but this is not true for everyone.
We are making it a priority to design our model in a way that ensures we know who needs payment, and we are able to provide that in an equitable way.

Inclusivity, equity, and representation:

Everyone deserves community, but not everyone has the same ease of access to it. This is something that culture and events have a unique position in addressing. We have a platform, and we control who gets to use it.

This is a huge responsibility, and one we can only meet if we recognise the importance of inclusivity, equity and representation.

If anyone feels unable to come to Collective because of a barrier outside of their control, that is a failure on our organisation.
We will make sure to elevate the voices of everyone who may experience these barriers, providing representation on our stages and in our democracy, to create a healthy and productive ongoing conversation about our communities well being.