Case Study:
Elements Festival
A weekend of connection, camping, and creativity.
To celebrate our 30th issue of the magazine and our 10th year in print, we hosted a boutique festival in Cornwall during the summer of 2024.
The Plan
To celebrate 10 years in print and the launch of our 30th issue, we decided to do something special, something different. We left our comfort zone completely, and launched the first ever Elements festival – a weekend retreat experience. Building on the success of our Sidetracked LIVE tour (which has been running for three years), our festival expanded the ‘Sidetracked experience’ over two days of connection, camping, and creativity.
Location
We chose Kudhva as our event location. It’s a beautiful yet challenging off-grid glamping-site in Cornwall. It’s a unique and sustainable spot that enjoys panoramic views of the rugged North Cornish coastline and a simple way of living, totally off grid, in a beautifully curated space. The famous cabins are built high off the ground for a perspective on the nature around, and the tipis sit prominently on the hillside with views over the Atlantic. There is barely any phone signal and participants need to hike in. For an immersive experience with nature, it’s the perfect place.
Preparation
Our objective was to create an immersive boutique festival experience for outdoor and adventure lovers. The project took eight months of planning to bring to life. As Kudhva is completely off-grid and with access limitations, we procured all event infrastructure from local companies, including generators, showers and toilets, and the massive event tipis. In addition, we sourced all of the food and drink from local suppliers.
Accommodation was in the form of camping (in participants’ own tents or campervans) but also offering glamping upgrades to tipis, bell tents or the unique kudhva cabins.
The Event
Over two days and nights, the Sidetracked team and a number of special guests and experts hosted a wide range of creative masterclasses and active workshops including film-making and photography, writing, climbing, trail running, surfing, cold water swimming, yoga, bushcraft,
and more.
In the evenings, we all gathered together at the festival hub for lively nights of adventure films, inspiring talks by incredible explorers, and live music and dancing from local artists and bands.
‘It felt like stepping away from life for a while... or stepping into LIFE for a while might be a better description.’
– Via Attendee Survey
Brand Partnerships
We are grateful to have been supported by three main partners: Blundstone, VOITED and Norrona.
In addition we had support from Solo Stove, Stanley, KAVU and The James Brand for specific sessions and events, and further supplier partnerships with Pentire Drinks, Firepot, Movewell and Voom Nutrition
The brands were integrated into all pre-event promotion via our digital campaign (see below) and prominence within the dedicated festival website.
On-site Activations
Brand presence was discussed and strategised on an individual basis for each brand to ensure they would get the best results from the event.
INCLUDING:
• On-site product placement – not just for display purposes, but put to extensive use and integrated into the environment and experience.
• Trailers and promotional films being played during the film sessions and at the start of each evening show.
• Logos on all holding slides on the big screen
• Banners & flags prominently positioned within the site along with branded session signage.
• A festival brochure including brand information/adverts handed out to all attendees.
• Giveaways and prizes in branded tote bags.
Promotion: Digital Support
WEBSITE
We designed and built a bespoke festival website for Elements and linked to this via the main Sidetracked.com website and all subsequent promotion. Within this site, we posted details of the programme, sponsor support and vital festival information. In addition we collected email sign ups for festival-specific newsletters (see below)
VISIT THE WEBSITE: elements.sidetracked.com
NEWSLETTER
The festival was shared for 8 consecutive weeks in our weekly field journal newsletter. On average this went out to 19k people each week with a 40% open rate / 18% CTR
We also set up a dedicated newsletter for attendees and those who registered interest - approximately 620 sign-ups. We sent 8 update newsletters to these with a very high average open rate > 60%
SOCIAL MEDIA
Before the festival we posted 15 main feed posts on Instagram and 10 posts across our other channels. This resulted in 90k impressions and 6k engagements
There was a lot of activity from attendees throughout the weekend and for this phase we focused on IG stories, posting our own content and resharing tagged content.
In total we posted 75 stories across the two days resulting in over 30k impressions from our account alone. Our stories were also extensively shared by the supporting brands, hosts and attendees.
‘The wild cooking session was absolutely fantastic. The “discover tea” session was so incredible and we got so much from it! Really lovely to have this blend of chilled out workshops after some of the runs, swim, walks and outdoor activities.’
– Via Attendee Survey
Summary
Despite some challenges (mainly due to the severe storms during the days before the event) everything ran smoothly and 100% of the guests said that it was great value for money and they’d love to attend again. We were begged on many occasions to do it again next year!
Attendees praised the diverse range of activities, the beautiful setting, and the overall organisation of the event. The workshops were highlighted for being engaging, enlightening and enjoyable. The active sessions were fully booked every time and the guests always returned to the site with huge smiles and stories to tell.
The evening events were particularly highlighted for their lively atmosphere
and unique and varied entertainment.
