Steve Ahern visits London Podfest.
While working in London this month I visited the London Podcast Festival.
While at IBC in Amsterdam I heard Evan Schapiro and others talk about audience ‘fandom’ as the new way to measure success and improve media business momentum.
The London Podcast Festival struck me as an in-your-face demonstration of fandom.
It’s not a conference about podcasting, it’s a festival where fans can go and watch podcasts being recorded. The festival is in its tenth year.
Walking into the foyer of Kings Place, a multipurpose music and arts venue in the renewed former railway land around Kings Cross station, I was struck by the huge crowd lining up patiently to see their favourite shows. Londoners still politely queue and enjoy the banter with others in the line as they wait for entry. The atmosphere in the lines and around the bar was friendly and welcoming.
On sunny days Londoners like to be outside, but here were hundreds of podcast fans inside a building waiting to get into the theatres to see their favourite podcast hosts perform.
I was impressed by the critical mass that this festival has achieved. Most sessions were full. I sneaked into one presentation and stood at the back, despite not getting a ticket and it being full. It was an audio drama session called Camlann.
Camlann is a post-apocalyptic fantasy audio drama series about the necessity of hope for survival. Dai, Morgan, Perry and their noble wolfhound Gelert venture out into the Welsh countryside to escape the devastation that hordes of folkloric monsters have wrought among the cities. Presumably targeted at kids, there were plenty of adult fans in the room.
The series Writer/Director is Ella Watts, the show is produced by Tin Can Audio.
What struck me was how many fans lined up after the session to get posters signed by the writer and to have a chat to their favourite cast members. It was the same enthusiasm as you would get in a book signing with a famous author or a fan moment with an actor at a film preview.
After that I went to a session about wrestling (yes, I paid for that ticket). I don’t know anything about wrestling, but that didn’t matter. Wrestle Me was really a comedy podcast, using the sport of wrestling as a vehicle for satire and send ups of anything from sport to British politics. There were obviously plenty of real wrestling fans in the audience who got the actual wrestling references, so I just laughed along with them.
Sara & Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club was the other session we saw. The podcast is presented by comedians and authors Sara Pascoe and Cariad Lloyd, billed as ‘a space for the lonely outsider to feel accepted and appreciated.’
Assisted by their comedian and writer friends, each week they discuss a book that is ‘special, stimulating and y’know – weird.’ This live podcast featured actor Alan Davies.
The team has gone beyond audio podcasts to live shows and stand up tours. They do live podcast shows and large scale line-up shows in London with big name guests. They also produce shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Wells Comedy Festival, so they have branched out to IRL events. They also make some money from merchandise
Youj can see their podcast studio setup here, they are doing so well that they are currently refurbishing the setup with Rode mics and the RØDECaster Pro II Podcast Production Studio desk, as well as cameras and lights.
The podcast scene is booming in the UK and it seems that podcasts with good numbers of followers and a commitment to building fandom are successful.
Steve Ahern is the publisher of this trade journal and CEO of the training company AMT Pty Ltd.