Page 106 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

106three so far) until the beginning of September, when they concentrate on the new edition.In 2015, to encourage participation, they hosted ve simultaneous contests on Instagram – a ploy that other festivals are also starting to adopt. For example, for one of the competitions festival goers were encouraged to take a sel e before the start of a performance. Another was for photographs related to the festival in general. Another was for children wearing theatremasks. Anyone wishing to take part had to take photographs with a mobile only and share them on that social media site under a series of hashtags (#OaSiTA, #ReviuTA...).Depending on the contest, winners were given various prizes such as tickets or sets of sponsors’ products. This helps make a noise, bolster the festival’s presence on the social media and also gauge festival goers’ degree of involvement.HAY Festival is one of the most impactful festivals in the literary world, with various editions held in several countries throughout the year (it is interesting to note that each edition has its own Facebook and Twitter pro les which are managed independently in the host country’s main language).The main purpose of these social media accounts is to share information, promote the events and repost content generated at all the festivals and also, from time to time, by third parties, thereby furthering its mission to celebrate and promote all aspects of writing. They are on both Twitter and Facebook, with a bigger presence and more varied content on the latter.Special mention should be made of the content they generate to repost it on their social media accounts and upload from the YouTube account ‘Hay Levels’ (in parallel to the o cial Hay Festival account). These three-minute videos are designed to help students prepare for their A-level exams (basically to help them write and think better) and are recorded specially in astudio by leading writers, artists, researchers and thinkers who explain a particular subject related to these examinations.However, given the topics dealt with, the organisers repost them on the other two social media they are on. Every shared video generates a good level of conversation – for example,as can be seen in Facebook. They also share interviews and lectures recorded at festivalson their o cial channel, and the occasional short video with some of their guests recorded specially for digital format.4Festival Kosmopolis, which, as stated earlier,is strongly focused on bringing together literature, storytelling and new media, andnew technologies (it de nes itself a festival of ampli ed literature ‘in manifestations of the spoken, digital and printed word5), is committed to the social media as vehicles for dissemination and two-way communication. It has Facebook and Twitter pro les and content galleries on Pinterest, Vimeo and Flickr.Although the festival is biennial, between the various editions it stages a host of related activities (once again, the concept of ampli ed festival) at its operational headquarters, the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). This enables it to share content such as videos of lectures and activities held regularly under the name of Kosmopolis, and on Twitter it2. NT BEFORE AND DURING THE FESTIVALFocus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals