GRINAGOG FESTIVAL

Grinagog – An old Devonian word that time forgot meaning ‘One who grins all day without good reason’.

Grinagog Festival was the brainchild of Continental Drifts’ Music Director, Chris Tofu, in partnership with Torbay Council and an amazing group of local industry experts. The festival took place at Torre Abbey, Torquey in 2017 and 2018, and Minigog, a smaller version of the festival, in 2019. The beautiful, historic venue hosted festival venues inside its walls, with extraordinary gigs happening in the Chapel, Crypt and Ballroom as well as the impressive Spanish Barn. We built vintage canvas tents on the lawn and gardens to house mini venues and ventured over to the RICC to host our headline shows. The team behind the event transported the term ‘Grinagog’ through time with the aim of providing a festival in the heart of the English Riviera that gave everyone who came along plenty of reasons to grin all day and party all night.

Continental Drifts provided a full project management service for all three years of the festival leading on design and curation, local authority and community liaison, funding, health & safety, as well as working closely with marketing and PR agencies.

Creative programming also fell into the remit of our music team who worked with our music roster and local promotors to programme up to 10 stages and an incredible mix of performance and workshops across the festival site. Artists across the years included Craig Charles, Big Narstie, Macka B, Akala and Rat Boy as well as local groups such as Doorstep Arts and Ska Au Go Go.

Continental Drifts Services…

  • Project Management
  • Funding Applications
  • Full Festival Production
  • Parade Management
  • Full Programme Curation – Music & Performance
  • Marketing
  • Budget Management
  • Supplier & Staff Procurement
  • Trader Management
  • Artist Advancing
  • Stage & Technical Management
  • Accreditation
  • Health & Safety
  • Crowd Management
  • Site Design
  • Site Management
  • Ingress & Egress Management

As well as project management and programming, in 2017 Continental Drifts managed all aspect of artist advancing and artist & crew accreditation. We supplied all stage managers, artist liaison and accreditation managers onsite. In 2018, our involvement grew as we took on full production management, including producing event management plans, attending safety advisory group meetings at Torbay Council, site design and management, budget management, supplier procurement and trader management.

We would like to say a huge thank you to all our partners who made Grinagog possible.