Interview With The Vampire (Festival Organiser)

Craig Hooper and Peter Phillips, IVFAF organisers, in Sighisoara

On Wednesday May 25th I'll be heading off to Transylvania to spend four fabulously vampiric days in the birth town of Vlad Tepes (Dracula).The event? The first International Vampire Film & Arts Festival (IVFAF). 

An ambitious project, the programme has been toned down a bit since it was first advertised- the workshops and studio tours were cut in favour of an academic symposium run by the University of South Wales (featuring academics from around the globe presenting their research into vampire films and the folk history behind them) and a theatre and film focus. Some of the highlights include a masked-vampire ball, the World Premiere of Aaron's Blood, which James Martinez will be attending, and a keynote speech from Dacre Stoker,  the Canadian-American author and filmmaker and great-grand nephew of Bram Stoker, the author of the 1897 Gothic novel Dracula. 

Cuts and changes are inevitable- it's not been done before and for Craig Hooper and Peter Phillips, the brains behind it all, it's a learning process, as it is for the Romanian town, Sighisoara, which is hosting the event. Yet they are confident that the IVFAF will get better -and bigger- by the year!

The idea for a vampire festival first struck Craig Hooper, a documentary filmmaker, on a family holiday to Transylvania.

"We drove up to Transylvania and the medieval Sighisoara citadel, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site,” Craig said. "It’s everything you'd imagine Transylvania to be. It’s amazing but slightly spooky."

He realised Sighisoara's potential as a festival venue immediately, but having no experience in organising such an event, he turned to Peter Phillips, the man behind the Porthcawl ElvisFestival, for help.

Wanting to find out more, I got in touch with Peter Phillips this weekend to ask him how the IVFAF came about and his expectations for it. 

Peter Phillips, Co-Organiser of the IVFAF

Tell us a little about your background.

I used to own a group of companies that included corporate finance/venture capital/ marketing/ PR. I sold out in 2000 and started writing, later publishing two history books which led to writing, producing and presenting documentaries for the BBC and RTE and a number of theatre productions. The Porthcawl Elvis Festival was a throwaway idea that led to a comedy festival in Ireland and now a portfolio of events in Wales, Ireland, Spain and now Romania.

What was your reaction when Craig came to you with the initial idea of IVFAF?

It was one of those weird coincidences. One of my festival team had moved to Italy and I was out there around this time last year looking to see if we could come up with an idea of a Festival in Tuscany where he lived. We were having lunch in Volterra, which of course has a big vampire connection through Twilight. I couldn't believe there was no festival anywhere in the world that straddled the vampire genre in film and arts. The following week I was back in Wales and meeting Craig, who I've known for years, about a TV documentary we were looking at co-producing. He'd just come back from a family holiday in Transylvania and had also realised that there was no vampire festival in the market. He felt Sighisoara was the best location and after going out there myself to have a look, I had to agree. We quickly agreed to co-produce what became the IVFAF.  

What did you have to do to make it happen?

You just make it happen and the only way you do that is not be reliant on any third party. Do that and your event will invariably stay as an idea.  

How does organising a vampire fest in Romania compare with getting the Porthcawl Elvis Festival going?

The Porthcawl Elvis Festival 

In some ways it’s very similar. We’ll get some of it right at the start and some of it wrong. I can look back at the first year of all our successful festivals and think ‘what were we thinking doing X and why didn’t we have Y idea until Year 3?!

What were some of the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge is getting to know a new location and finding the best people there to work with. This is obviously more challenging when doing an event in a foreign country with language barriers. But the only way to do that is to put on a first event and take it from there.

In what way ways were the Romanian tourism agencies/ Romanian Embassy involved?

We never had any involvement with the Romanian Embassy but the tourist agency in London introduced us to the regional office in Brasov who were key in effecting introduction in Sighisoara.

Peter with Anca from IVFAF Media Partners Radio SON and Ioana from the Sighisoara Mayor's office

Why Sighisoara and not Volterra (or near to)?

In fairness to Twilight, the books and films play a much smaller role in the history of the vampire genre compared to Transylvania – a region that has been synonymous with vampires in books and films for over hundred years. Plus, in practical terms, Tuscany is a very expensive place to visit and therefore staging a festival there would exclude lots of people wanting to attend on a tight budget.

Transylvania has been synonymous with vampires in books and films for over 100 years

Sighisoara City Hall unexpectedly withdrew funding earlier this year, meaning that the literary workshops and gaming sides had to be taken out of the festival programme. Why do you think they changed their minds and does it affect your plans to hold future IVFAFs there?

We've found that public funding for events has been significantly cut this year in every country we work in. I’m confident that Sighisoara will prove perfect for IVFAF

What are your expectations for this and future IVFAFs?

I think IVFAF has huge potential and the only place to start is Year One. 

Last question. Why vampires? :)

It’s an amazing genre that has been consistently popular across all film and art.

Thank you, Peter, and I'll see you there!

Jacob (the 'Tech Guy') and Peter, in Sighisoara

All will be revealed this week at the world's first vampire festival, in Transylvania. This author can't wait!