Open Call FAQs
The 2021 Urban Tree Festival runs between 15th-23rd May 2021
In the enforced circumstances we find ourselves in, we are moving forward with the Urban Tree Festival with a focus providing entertaining, thought-provoking and interactive activities on-line, from the 15th-23rd May 2021. If the pressure cooker lid of restrictions is lifted, and you are able to run an on-the-ground activity, we will endeavour to support you.
Check out last year’s activities and on-line events as we want to have fresh ideas for 2021. These could include self guided trails for those whose one form of daily exercise is walking, videos of events or experiences, Zoom discussions or reading groups, quizzes, photography or writing. We'd love to promote your activities as best we can.
Submit your proposal using the UTF21 Open Call submission form.
Who is behind the Urban Tree Festival?
A group of volunteers with a passion for trees came together to set up the Urban Tree Festival in May 2018. That group has grown and forms a loose network. We are applying to become an asset-locked community interest company (a not-for-profit social enterprise) in time for the festival in May. Previously, the Urban Tree Festival was delivered by the Museum of Walking (a wholly owned subsidiary of Rethinking Cities Ltd.) with the support of dozens of volunteers.
Where does the Urban Tree Festival take place?
The Urban Tree Festival had its roots in London, however, in May 2020, forced on-line we were able to include event and activities from across the globe, as well as entertain people from five continents. Wherever you are in the world, if you want the Urban Forest to thrive, please put forward a proposal.
Who can take part?
We issue a call out to artists, walk leaders, arborists, friends’ groups and anyone who shares our passion for urban trees, to put on an event as part of the festival.
We try to select activities and events that will have a diverse family-focus appeal, generate inter-activity or collaborative effort and strive to offer as many free events as possible.
Can we see a copy of the submission form before we submit an event or activity?
We have created a PDF version of the form - do NOT USE THIS FORM to submit a proposal for an event or activity as it will not be eligible. Only use the ON-LINE OPEN CALL submission form.
We ran an Open Call Advisory Event on 13 February and you see the presentation slides here - we learnt a lot from this event and will be adding Q&As from that event to these FAQs. We hope to publish the video recording in due course.
How long does it take to complete the form?
We have provided a pdf of the form so submitters can see it before starting to complete it - there are 16 questions, and as long as you have all the necessary items to hand, it shouldn't take more than 15-20 minutes.
Is there a cost to run an activity or an event?
We charge an administration fee of £20 unless an event is offered free. Free events are not charged an administration fee.
If I run an event or contribute an activity, what’s in it for me?
Exposure and publicity as part of an Award-winning volunteer-led Urban Tree Festival.
Experience in running events or putting on activities on-line.
In 2020 donations we received through ticket bookings were distributed to contributors as £50 honorarium - if we are as / more successful in fund raising / or donations in 2021, we will follow a similar route.
What resources are available to help us realise our proposal?
We cannot offer any technical support. If our funding permits, we may have a small budget with which to contribute to your costs.
May we seek our own funding or sponsorship to run an activity or an event?
Yes, we encourage you to look for funding and yes, you keep all the funding / sponsorship you get. We would love it if you made a donation to the festival.
Is there a theme to this year’s festival?
It is all about celebrating trees - and bringing joy. We are using a skeleton thematic framework but this is not set in stone - we will consider submissions on different dates and alternative themes:
Day 1 Sat 15 May : ecology & nature
Day 2: urban trees & climate
Day 3: tree planting
Day 4: tree protection
Day 5: tree species
Day 6: ancient trees
Day 7: access to nature (mental health and wellbeing)
Day 8: tree culture & heritage (mental health and wellbeing)
Day 9 Sun 23 May : tree culture, heritage, literature
Does the event we submit need to have a direct and clear link to trees?
Yes - trees in publicly accessible urban / suburban settings - but we will consider other proposals.
I am now in a small town, so it's urban but not very urban, so it's a bit intermediate. Is that urban enough?
Tell us where you are and we might be able to link you up with others that are in similar sized locations / are near to you. But the Urban Tree Festivals celebrates trees in all publicly accessible built up environments!
Can I suggest events that span two different locations?
Yes - but remember that two locations may add considerably to your administration of the event.
If we have an event which fits with your themes and of course urban trees, what are things that would not get the event/activity selected?
Anything dangerous or that puts people at risk. Anything that isn’t clear in what it intends to achieve. Anything that requires a lot of administration - as our capacity will be stretched as it is. Scheduling overlaps might be a problem if you are inflexible about when your event can run.
What types of events or activities have proven popular in the past?
Panel events with more than one speaker attracted more sign-ups (but not necessarily participants) during last year’s Festival. Workshops and walks are always popular.
If we are putting on an on-line event how much may we charge for tickets?
We don’t stipulate the prices for ticketed events, that is for the group or individual who is organising the events to choose. We endeavour to set a guide price, and for UTF21 that’s £8-£12 per ticket.
If you submit an event free to participants and if we have funding, we may be able to support you financially.
How many events are free generally?
In 2021, all events were free, but we asked people for donations throughout the festival, we suggested that it was £5 for one or £12 for three or more events.
What becomes of the donations made during the Festival by people who book events?
In 2020, we managed to raise enough in donations to distribute honoraria to 100 contributors and volunteers who had been involved in running the Festival. A proportion of the donation pot went to website subscriptions and bank transaction charges, and we were able to carry over £1,000 for this year’s Festival.
If I have activities spanning the whole Festival, do I tick all the date boxes?
If you want to run an event throughout the festival, you should click all the days it will run on
How many attendees can you support?
We encourage you to run your events on your own video conferencing platform - we are likely to use Zoom - you can buy a month's account for up to 100 participants on Zoom for £11.99 - see https://us02web.zoom.us/pricing We may be able to offer hosting through Zoom as we’re hopeful that the Arboricultural Association zoom account will be made available to us, that will allow us to accomodate 500 people in a webinar format. We need to schedule events so as not to overlap, and this may preclude you from using the Festival Zoom accounts.
How many people can we have take part in our on-line event or activity?
Capacity for your event is up to you. Take regard that there maybe some capacity-issues set by the digital platforms you or the Festival producers choose to use.
May we submit more than one on-line activity or event?
There is no limit to the number you may submit. If you want to run more than one event, and each is a distinctly different event, please make two submissions.
If we run an event that is “similar” to another running elsewhere, and our event will be at a location new to the festival, will it be included?
If an event is location-specific then it might be possible for us to include it in the festival and help with its promotion.
Do you send a feedback form after each event to all participants? Would you recommend we send a feedback form? Do you have one that we can all use?
Yes we sent all our event participants a link to a feedback form. We can make a pdf version available here in due course.
Can you put us in touch with "tree experts" e.g. in order to offer a walk for a specific audience in a specific location?
Use the Contact form - we may be able to make suggestions of people to approach.
I’d like to propose a blog post - is it alright to use the Open Call submission form, even though it's not an event?
No - don’t use this form - send a summary of the blog post via the Contact form on the Festival website. We can then assess whether it is suitable and get in touch with you. In due course, we may set up a blog submission form.
What information do we have to provide?
Our initial Open Call seeks the following information:
Event name
Event description - clear details of where, when, what and how to access it if it already resides on a separate platform or URL
Whether you will host on your platforms or see hosting from us
Whether it is on-line only or can pivot to being on-the-ground, or is hybrid (with people on the ground contributing to an on-line activity)
Audience - for what age is the activity or event suitable
Organiser’s details and biography
Additional information including ticketing information
Whether you plan to charge for attendance or to make it a free, open access event
Where do we submit our on-line activity or event?
Please use the UTF21 Open Call Submission Form to submit your event or activity.
What is the deadline for activity and event submission?
NO LATER than midnight GMT Sunday 28th February
What can I do if I want to correct a mistake in an entry I have already submitted?
Use our Contact page and make sure you include the precise event title and we can add the corrections.
By when will we know if our response to the Open Call has been selected?
You will be informed by Tuesday 9 March.
What if we cannot confirm our on-line event / proposal until after the 28th February deadline?
Get in contact with us via our Contact page here. We are all volunteers so we know how difficult it can be to get everything in place straightaway.
If our on-line activity or event has been selected, what further information will you require and by when?
If you are selling tickets, you will need to set up your own Eventbrite (or similar) page and share the URL with us so we can add it to the Urban Tree Festival website. This way you will immediately receive all ticket sales.
We may be able to sell tickets directly through the Urban Tree Festival website, if you would like us to do this, you must tell us on the form. We will ask you to make a £20 donation towards our administration costs.
We will endeavour to publish as full a programme by 31 March.
If we don't get chosen and want to go ahead with our event(s) then is it not allowed for us to say they are part of the UTF?
If your event is not chosen, while you are free to run it yourself, it cannot be branded as part of the Urban Tree Festival or claim any association with the Festival.
Is there a mechanism for the Festival community of volunteers and event organisers to talk to each other? Before and during the Festival.
Not at present but we would be happy to investigate avenues if it was felt this would be used / helpful.