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In its 6th year, the annual celebration of independent and alternative music, A Carefully Planned Festival, will be returning to Manchester’s Northern Quarter on 15th-16th October, taking place across over 9 venues. 

Back in October 2011, Matthew Boycott-Garnett and his friend Mike Glenister created Carefully Planned. With just 5 venues, less than half of the acts scheduled for this year’s festival and a much smaller turnout, it’s easy to see just how far this homegrown idea has come and it's encouraging to see it expanding each and every year. 

As a small time underdog to some of the mainstream festival competition, utmost respect is due to the people behind Carefully Planned and similar events supporting DIY music. There isn’t mass funding behind them, nor much money in general. There is, however, lots of time, effort and a genuine interest in every act that is put on. Planning festivals of this scale can take up to a year in advance and future events can be uncertain. 

This year A Carefully Planned Festival features specially brewed Carefully Planned beer, not to mention 160 exciting emerging bands and artists from the UK and beyond. We chat to Matthew about what inspired the festival and how it contributes to Manchester’s music scene and the DIY community.
 

What is Carefully Planned’s ethos?
There are a number of ways of looking at it, but generally we try and make sure we focus on bringing together good people to enjoy good music in nice places. It sometimes gets a bit more complicated than that, but generally we try and keep it simple.

How did you come up with the name ‘Carefully Planned’?
A lot of people like to joke with us about the name. They see our spreadsheets and suddenly want to point out how carefully planned it really is! I initially chose the name to refer to the simple ethos I alluded to in the previous answer. It’s almost a ‘no frills’ approach and as the name of the festival, it’s pretty much ironic! It’s also a name of a song by an awesome band called Faraquet.

For each and everyone involved in the careful planning, for one weekend only Carefully Planned is our mutual destiny.

What goes into the planning of the festival?
Lots of spreadsheets, a few meetings but mostly things just happen because we’re passionate about what we do. To do lists are very helpful and the planning kind of happens all year round. I have tried to put it off until a bit later the last couple of years as it can take over my life. There are other things I’m passionate about too so I can’t let it take over. Mike chose not to get involved this year, largely because he’s passionate about other things too!

Who makes up the Carefully Planned team?
The team has grown over the years and there’s another 8 people heavily involved these days; Jessica Flavell, Joy Morris, Adam Thomson, Nick Steedman, Tilly Makemson, Joe Kelly, Kim Batty and Caitlin Murray. There’s also a wider group of people who volunteer their time to make sure the festival runs smoothly. Overall, hundreds of people help make the event what it is and I’m so proud of everybody!

Do you follow any criteria for the type of bands and artists who play each festival?
I don’t have a checklist as such, but I do try and spot unusual and/or particular talent or character in the acts that I eventually choose to book. I try to recognise human qualities in performances too. The event is about good people and about sharing, togetherness and community. So as much as possible, I try and explore acts and musicians who represent that.

I have a huge list of the bands I want to put on that I’ll constantly refer to for inspiration. The line-up is more or less curated by us. It has always been myself and Mike doing all the booking in the past and Jess has helped out in the last 2 years. In some cases it’s necessary to step away from my own personal taste in order to recognise an act that belong on the bill, but I’m not especially into. Mostly my taste is shaped by what ought to be on the line-up. I’m especially passionate about being empathetic and putting myself in other people’s shoes to ensure the line-up has something for everybody.

How does Carefully Planned differ from other multi-venue festivals?
It’s hard to know because my own involvement is so very different. I’m probably not most qualified to comment, but I do try not to be biased. I see all festivals existing at some point on a spectrum. I see festivals like Sounds From The Other City, SuperNormal out on the left and huge corporate do’s like V Festival on the right. I reckon Carefully Planned falls just left of centre. We try to do things respectfully and decently, but we want to appeal to a wide range of people, and we’re fervently against excluding people. So there’s compromise on the kinds of acts we book.

It’s the 6th event! Did you ever think you would be getting ready for the 6th Carefully Planned Festival?
I think so, yeah. These days I fluctuate between thinking I’ll never do it again and presuming it’ll last forever. I used to be much more focused on the latter of those two extremes, so I’ve probably imagined what the 50th one would be like. As long as people enjoy it, I’ll keep doing it. 

Here’s to many more years of A Carefully Planned Festival. Its absence would leave a rather large hole in the heart of Manchester’s DIY scene. Support your local music scene and be sure to get involved with fantastic events such as Carefully Planned. The festival takes place this weekend. Get your tickets here.

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