Cheeky Fest; social impact arts festival in London

Cheeky Fest is a beautiful, bold, bright, collaborative, colourful, creative, daring, dramatic, dynamic, educational, empowering, encouraging, engaging, enthralling, ear/eye opening, expressive, inspiring, international, invigorating, joyous, participatory, public, progressive, reciprocal, reflective, social, thought-provoking year-round Community growing through an annual Festival.

Cheeky connects artists, entrepreneurs & performers to help you manage your social & mental health through coaching/consulting, community, education, events, fairly paid work, funding (arts & startup/business), marketing & promotion.

I (Rupert Cheek) studied music for many years and was an active musician (pianist & drummer) for 10 years, as well as singing in community choirs. I've dealt with trauma & suffered from depression, and experienced periods of unemployment.

I launched Cheeky as a Facebook group in Jan 2013 to help musicians connect with others and promote themselves. The tagline some years ago was “Connect through music”. I want(ed) to help them to use social media, to be social, to communicate. I help them think about what, how & when to share their stories / content / work.

Some years after being involved in an accident in Sept '11, I wanted to organise some kind of event to fundraise for the London's Air Ambulance service who rescued & treated me and took me to hospital. Then I wanted to fundraise for Nordoff (And) Robbins music therapy (I had music therapy when I was young); so I thought ‘let’s split the profit 50/50'.

The fundraising event idea then grew into an arts community and series of festivals — initially in London, and hopefully happening in other cities / countries in the future.

WHY? Help people in & through the arts.

Help people build friendships, self-esteem / confidence, to express themselves, to connect with others, to create & be part of a community which they feel they belong to, to show them that they matter, to give them a sense of control over & freedom in their lives.

Help humans who (are friends or family of people who) are experiencing / have suffered with mental health challenges such as anxiety, bi-polar, depression, psychosis, schizophrenia.

Help people manage their social & mental health through the arts; art, dance, film, music, opera, performance, poetry, sound, theatre.

Help artists, musicians, performers to make & share their creative work, to make their creativity emotionally, financially, mentally and socially rewarding.

WHO?

Cheeky Fest is for people who;

educate, empower, encourage, engage, inspire, listen & share

are still finding how they coexist with the rest of society,

haven’t had the opportunity to develop their passions,

aren’t earning enough money to support themselves,

are under / unemployed and/or claiming benefit(s)

have had / continue to have mental health challenges such as;

anxiety, bipolar, depression, psychosis or schizophrenia.

There's often a correlation between creativity & mental health. We aim to raise awareness of and provide resources to manage mental health; a number of famous musicians have committed suicide as a result of mental health issues. In late May 2019 tragedy struck in my own life, and I lost a dear friend and musician with whom I used to play. He had died by suicide after struggling with bipolar disorder. I’ve struggled with depression at various points in my life.

Why now?

Music streaming (i.e. what musicians are being paid per stream) + Covid + changes in arts / music funding (e.g. recent ACE grant changes, especially in the classical arena) + Brexit + have had / are having a dramatic impact on performers in the UK.

With YOUR help, we can

1) Hire a venue

2) Pay performers

3) Employ talented people

4) Launch the Cheeky Foundation

5) Launch Cheeky Ventures

6) Launch Cheeky Education

The funds will be used to hire a venue (we've got a few in mind), pay everyone involved fairly and promote it so we can make as much money through ticket sales as possible

Find out more about Cheeky, Cheeky Fest in London,

What's in it for YOU?

Cheeky merchandise

Improve your communication

Get better at what you want to do

Entry into VIP areas / backstage passes

Replace fear with a supportive community

Be part of something bigger than yourself

Meet artists, performers & Cheeky team at Events

Navigate your challenges together with vulnerability

Company name as partner / sponsor in all brochures

Connect with other humans, help them and make friends

Social media consulting, Business / leadership consulting

Written Interview about you / business / creative work

Lifetime* entry to all Cheeky events (travel not included)

Achieve bigger goals that you couldn't achieve on your own

Increase support for your creative work, business or institution

Promotion / marketing on social media & cheekyfest live, cheekyfest london, cheeky space, cheeky foundation,