A word about 'Art'
We believe everyone is creative, but many people don’t have the opportunity to exercise this key muscle in their every day lives, and even more have been put off by being told they aren’t “good at art”.
We are passionate about enabling those who do not consider themselves ‘arty’ to feel safe and un-judged enough to create a window display. We encourage those who feel invisible to participate.
We find that inviting makers to take part through ‘play’ and ‘fun’ results in people signing up to have a go.
That’s why we deliberately avoid words like art or artist, creative, happy or inspire.
You can see how safe windowmakers have felt to experiment and express themselves in our Gallery.
Organising a Wanderland
How long is a piece of string?
We believe anyone should be able to organise a festival, no matter how much energy or time they have. With no road closures to organise, no tickets to sell, no permissions to be sought, or money to change hands it offers great reward for relatively little effort.
The key is to understand what a successful festival will look like for your community.
From getting all the generations on a cul de sac to make something beautiful together, to breaking a world record for the most window displays in a square mile, to raising money for a good cause, the scope of your festival is entirely down to you.
The Organisers section of our website has a description of the steps involved in creating a Window Wanderland. Once you register your event you will get a full step-by-step guide to organising it, which will help you to understand the skills you need and what you might be able to delegate to whom.
Our online mapping tools will help you to set an area that is achievable. The key thing is to remember that even in the tiniest area there are people who may feel excluded and don’t feel like part of the community. We’re aiming to reach them, so they can love where they are.
No. Most of the information you need to sign up is on our Organise page. Once you’re signed in, our toolkit will talk you through every step of the process.
Of course you can, it’s FREE, we are glad we inspired you to brighten your neighbourhood.
Simply register your area and choose the ‘listing’ option for FREE. This will give you a webpage so local people can contact you, plus a few tips and tricks to making your festival a success.
Once you have created your own website, publish it on your page and we can SHOUT ABOUT IT! Please remember to put a link back to us to encourage others to join us.
If you choose not to register with us, please don’t use our name, films or images.
We do not charge for using our images, we ask that you sign up with us (free) so we can share your festival, and link back to us for others get involved.
The festival is for your community and it’s up to you. If your neighbourhood would find it easier to make their magic around a theme, then it could be a good idea.
Some communities already have Christmas festivals in their areas, and create a Wanderland alongside. Some communities have chosen to hold Remembrance Day Wanderlands and tie-in with other special national festivals and holidays.
If you’re not doing your Wanderland as part of something bigger, do check what other festivals are happening around the time you’re hoping to do it, to avoid a clash.
All you can do is keep reminding people that the festival is happening. When you register with us, you’ll get a webpage, like this one, which you can share far and wide. With our Deluxe toolkit, you’ll be able to see how many window makers are signing up.
You can use this knowledge to inform your marketing campaign. When you set up your Facebook event, we can act as co-host and share it far and wide for you. The more you tell us about your event, the more we can help you shout about it!
Absolutely and we offer fundraising support and advice in our Deluxe Toolkit.
Timings
Traditionally Wanderlands have been organised in the Winter months, but Spring and Summer trails also work really well, showing off gardens and daytime displays.
Our main message to ensure success is to give plenty (months) of engagement time and concentrate on one local walkable area, and AVOID being within a month of existing established festivals.
There is more information about this in the registration pack, to help you decide the perfect time.
This is up to you, but in our experience we strongly suggest a few days, at specific times in those days, over one weekend. We find Saturday to Monday works best, Friday can be too soon for those at work, and Monday allows for those away at the weekend to see the displays.b
We usually suggest the first couple of hours of darkness as your official opening time, to get the maximum concentration of wanderers.
It depends on the type of community you live in and how you want to create the festival. We recommend you give yourself at least three months to give people time to sign-up as window makers.
Registering and buying toolkits
Window Wanderland CIC is a non-profit organisation, and any money we receive goes straight back to continuing our work bringing communities together and reducing isolation.
We believe our resources represent amazing value for money.
We take the pain out of setting up a website, mapping displays and GDPR compliant sign-up and communication with your display makers.
We’ve also taken everything we’ve learned in over ten years about setting up these festivals and shared the knowledge in our Deluxe Toolkit.
That said, you can have a festival page and our brand kit for FREE. All we ask is that you publish it, with a link to your own website so we can share you to inspire others.
Share your love. Love where you are.
Our Deluxe toolkit explains how to raise money through sponsorship to applying for community grants.
Ideas also include:
- Asking for a small donation from each window maker.
- Selling hot chocolate/cakes during the festival.
- Selling the route maps.
- Having donation buckets available on the night.
Because Wanderlands are completely customisable to your area, it’s very hard to say what budget you will need.
What we can tell you, is that Window Wanderland festivals in many places have been successful in securing funding from local businesses and charities.
Our Deluxe toolkit contains pointers for doing the same, including templates for fundraising letters and a comprehensive budget outline that allows you to input your local costs to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything.
Registration as an Organiser is free. Once you’re registered, welcome! You’re. part of the movement. You now have a simple webpage, like this one and your area appears on our map of Window Wanderland festivals worldwide
When you share your page, local makers can connect with you to show their interest.
The registration also means that no-one else can register your area. You will be the local organiser and point of contact.
Our free toolkit will give you some advice and tips to take you through to the next stages of creating your Wanderland. If you’re doing a tiny festival, or you’re an experienced event organiser with the ability to make your own website, you may find this is enough.
If you need more support or are organising a larger festival, you will need our Deluxe toolkit.
We’ll also give you a shout on our social media welcoming you to the Wanderland Community, and share your webpage, encouraging locals to contact you.
If you know for sure that you do not want to publish a festival let us know at support@windowwanderland.com and we will remove the area page to give someone else a chance to use it.
It should take around an hour to complete a full registration, but you can save your progress and take as many goes at it as you like.
We can raise an invoice but don’t do this as standard. If you need an invoice please contact us and we can make these arrangements.
We offer two options: FREE Listing and Deluxe toolkit.
You can compare and contrast these options on the Organise page and choose the one that’s best for your local festival.
| Deluxe | Listing | |
|---|---|---|
| Organisation & Planning | ||
| Call yourself a Window Wanderland | ✔Yes | ✔Yes |
| A listing of your festival on our website and social media | ✔Yes | ✔Yes |
| Use of our images and films | ✔Yes | ✔Yes* |
| Your own festival page with map | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| Interactive map showing locations of windows | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| Email platform to keep in touch with your local window makers | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| Planning toolkit with timeline | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| Ideas gallery for display makers | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| Add images, links and logos to your festival page | ✔Yes | ✖No |
| ‘Print at home’ downloadable maps | ✔Yes | ✖No |
Festival size
Wanderlands are designed to be walking trails, for a neighbourhood. If the area can’t be clearly printed on an A4 page at home, then it’s probably too big for a Wanderland and people would not get round it all. This festival is a local event, it is at it’s best when it is focused on one community.
If you want to make your Wanderland a larger festival, or split it into smaller areas across one festival, we can support this with multi-area mapping. If you’d like to discuss this and the costs involved please fill in our enquiry form.
Yes, we offer bespoke options including:
- Workshops-in-a-box through the post to hand out to your residents
- Online workshops
- Bespoke window displays
- Writing fundraising applications
- Inspirational talks/local workshops for residents
To find out more about the services available please contact us.
Wanderlands are a great opportunity for businesses and the community to work together and encourage people to enjoy their local high street. If you want to discuss how to put on specific commercial Wanderlands please fill in our enquiry form.
Technical Support
Contact us on support@windowwanderland.com
Try these steps:
- Check your spam folders
- Clear cached images and files from your browser and try again
- Try a different browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet explorer, etc.)
- Secure networks sometimes block WordPress, so check if this is the case.
If these do not work Contact us on support@windowwanderland.com