Threshold Festival 2016 & the Baltic Triangle
Ahead of the sixth Threshold Festival in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle, we talk to Baltic Creative’s Mark Lawler and former CUC director Ingi Thor Jonsson about changes in area's cultural ecology and what happens next
Now in its sixth year, Threshold Festival – a three-day celebration of music and art – takes over Liverpool's Baltic Triangle at the beginning of April. Founded by partners Kaya and Chris Herstad Carney, the initial idea, and funding, for the festival came from Ingi Thor Jonsson, former creative director at the Novas Contemporary Urban Centre (now the Liverpool Life Sciences UTC).
“I couldn’t have chosen two better people to start a festival like Threshold,” says Jonsson. “The festival is absolutely about grassroots, unique ways of doing things in unique settings. In 2010, when I was at CUC, one of the biggest problems was how to get audiences in. So I had been brainstorming, researching different possibilities, and then I read this article about the biggest one-venue festival in Europe, which I think was in Germany. And I just thought, yeah, we can do that!
"I had worked previously with Chris and Kaya on projects so I called them in and said ‘OK, I have this idea. Do you think it’s feasible? They really went for it, within ten days they had set up the first meetings with promoters. And of course it’s about people working together across the Baltic Triangle, not just individuals in their own corner. Now it’s hugely successful and they don’t need any help from me. I am just in the audience as the sort of granddad telling them how proud I am.”
Spotlighting Liverpool's Baltic Triangle
The focus of Threshold is very much on grassroots practice, on emerging musicians, artists and performers; and on experimental ideas and collaborations. But the festival is just as much about putting the Baltic Triangle area itself in the spotlight.
“When Threshold first started,” says Jonsson, “the Baltic Triangle was just building itself, and the festival could build itself around that growth and development. It was the perfect time to start something, Liverpool was ready for it. And look at it now – when I came last year for the fifth year of the festival, it was just extraordinary. Although the economy is still struggling, the Baltic manages to build all these sexy places... these are sexy places to go to! It’s so different from ten years ago, you wouldn’t recognise it. I think Liverpool does really have the guts to do things like that.”
Ten years ago, the Baltic Triangle felt like a bit of a secret. It's not that far from Liverpool One, yet you would still have to explain to a lot of people where it actually was. The derelict buildings, smattering of leftover industry and general night-time Dickensian feel kept people away. Sometimes happily so. It was a place for creative experiment and possibility, away from the prying eyes and shiny pseudo-professionalisation of Liverpool as a branded arts city. The Baltic Triangle was a little Wild Westy, with a particular energy that produced the best parties and then trashed your bike.
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Back then, some of the key organisations in the area, such as A Foundation, Novas CUC, Liverpool Biennial and commercial landlord Baltic Creative, were starting to come together to talk about how to steer the redevelopment of the area; how to join up their activities, intentions and programmes into a constellation. But by 2011 it began to feel like the bottom was falling out of the plan. Both A Foundation and the Novas CUC failed to secure funds for their programme (although many would say their problems ran a little deeper than that) and shut their doors for good. Both buildings lay empty, monuments to a failed… something. And for a moment there it felt a little bleak.
Yet, in place of larger-scale art organisations, other things were happening within the area and thriving. Artists, designers and smaller start-up businesses continued to be attracted to the cheap rent and availability of space in the area and, crucially, food and drink choices multiplied (does anyone remember when it was just the Jamaica Street Snack Shop?).
Camp and Furnace, Leaf (or now Baltic Social), Constellations and Unit 51, to name just a few, provide for the population within the Baltic Triangle but also attract a different audience, who may not spend their work day in the area but are willing to travel there for food, music and a particular ‘experience.’ 2011 was also the first year of Threshold Festival, which looked to promote and make visible what was happening and to help the Baltic Triangle move forward, rather than back.
Baltic Triangle's 'independent nature'
Landlords Baltic Creative, who let specifically to creative and digital industries, have been key to this redevelopment and regeneration and are a good case-study of how some of today’s commercial landlords have become place- or community-makers over the last ten years. Their tenant list is diverse: festivals such as Liverpool Biennial and Liverpool Sound City; numerous digital and design companies; some more niche endeavours, such as Be One Percent, a company that invites individuals to donate 1% of their income to charities; and even Jammy Pet, a snack and toy subscription hamper for dogs and cats.
“Independent businesses and opportunities are growing here,” says Mark Lawler, managing director of Baltic Creative. “This is a place where they can become established and that’s the uniqueness of the area. [Our] ambition is to protect that independent nature of the area for as long as we can.
“We’re working with lots of young businesses. Businesses that have incredible talent and ideas for the future. But some of them are young so we need to make sure they are commercially savvy and understand things like cash flow and can manage their operations and their creative and inventive ideas...
"Over the last two or three years, we’ve seen some of those start-ups really begin to find their feet. They are beginning to grow, become established, and create wealth and jobs. That’s great news for the sector. And other commercial landlords from across the Northwest, who you may categorise as more traditional landlords, have recognised that in recent years and are focusing on creative and digital industries because they too recognise the potential... and are acquiring space on the back of it. But it’s not just about space, it’s about environment."
The future of Threshold Festival
So what is the future of the Baltic Triangle? “The challenge we’re coming up against is obviously that all of this growth and activity is increasing interest in the area,” says Lawler, “so developers are moving in, and whether that’s student accommodation or residential or any other type, values begin to rise and on the back of values rising it becomes a more difficult task. It’s a process, it’s a regenerative process. And regeneration doesn’t stop. There’s no beginning, middle and end to it – it just keeps going really. There’s no finite end.”
And for Threshold Festival? “It's very difficult," says Jonsson, "to find support for Threshold’s kind of grassroots activity – the money always seems to go to the larger venues... The intention is always to support and highlight grassroots activity, up-and-coming artists, some performers who had never really been on stage. Almost as a showcase for the people in the industry. We need more of that.”
Some of the old cowboy vibe of the Baltic Triangle remains – new spaces pop up and then disappear, whole warehouses are taken over for temporary projects and much remains undeveloped. But much has changed. A new stability prevails and, although it sometimes seems like no venue is safe from becoming a Waitrose, for now the Baltic Triangle remains Liverpool’s foremost creative district. Long may that continue.
Threshold Festival of Music & Arts, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool, 1-3 Apr