About Golowan
Where we are now
Our commitment to a community festival
In 2016, Penzance Council decided to that a charity or community interest company should take on the role of running the Golowan Festival rather than the council itself.
Golowan Festival CIC won the tender to run Golowan, and is contracted to run the festival until 2024.
The Golowan team consists of a festival director and two associate directors.
The Golowan Team
Alan Shepherd
Following four years as a director of Rough Coast Community Arts, including two years as Chair of the St Ives September Festival, Alan was appointed festival director by Penzance Council in 2015.
As one of the founding directors of Golowan Festival CIC in 2016, Alan has been involved in the running of the festival ever since. Formerly the chief executive of Cornwall Marine Network and chair of Penwith Housing Association, he is currently chair of Cornwall Rural Community Charity (CRCC) and chair of Coast FM, West Cornwall’s community radio station.
A poet, artist and accountant, Alan has run a weekly music night at The Crown in Penzance since 2013, and within Golowan, his specific responsibilities include finance, bid-writing and entertainment.
Martin Venning
Martin grew up in Penzance and first engaged with Golowan in the late 1990s as a warm up DJ for the bands performing in the festival marquee. In 2013, he joined the Golowan team as onsite markets manager and has been involved with Golowan every year since, He is currently the operations director.
Martin continues to work with the traders and is also responsible for event planning, road closures, health and safety and operations. Martin has more than 15 year’s experience in event production and has roles at other festivals and events in the UK throughout the year.
Nadine Tonner
Nadine’s role facilitates the collaboration and bringing together of people and organisations to deliver projects and events.
She has more than ten years’ experience within national print and broadcasting media and an extensive background in the arts and entertainment sectors.
Nadine is qualified in Business Enterprise, Events, Marketing, and Television Production. Her breadth of experience enables her to manage and deliver a wide variety of entertainment projects.
She also has extensive volunteer experience within our community.
Currently her responsibilities include collaborating with schools, artists, and community groups to organise the Mazey Day parades, recruiting and coordinating the festival volunteers, managing the Youth Stages, directing communications, managing the festival website and the design and content of the festival printed programme.
Many other individuals and groups are crucial members of the wider Golowan Team, these include artists, performers, volunteers, staff and pupils from local schools and many more. Without the involvement and support of so many the festival would not take place.
Golowan Festival CIC has a commitment to:
Provide an inclusive community event which celebrates the distinctive identity of Penzance and Cornwall, part of the Celtic fringe.
Collaborate with the owners of event venues to put on a range of events covering diverse genres.
Deliver free community events over the Mazey Day weekend which traditionally is the heart of the community’s midsummer and Feast of St John celebration.
Proud to be awarded the 2016 What’s On Cornwall Awards: Best Family Event