We hold a series of networking and learning sessions for artists, producers and venues in the lead up to the festival.

These are a great opportunity for you to meet the WAF team and get the most out of taking part.

To attend one of our Creative Sessions please first express your interest in taking part in WAF 2025 and the details of how to join the sessions will be emailed to you.

We also offer online toolkits and guidance, and a 1-1 clinic session for more specific advice on realising your ideas and fundraising, including making an application to our grant scheme.

Please note, the dates below may change – keep an eye on this page and on our social media channels for further updates.

Creatives Sessions

Session 1: Introduction to WAF 2025

Tuesday 17 September 2024, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom

Meet the team and talk about ideas for getting involved with WAF 6 - 22 June 2025.

We'll cover:

Introductions to the WAF team.
Expressions of Interest: How to get involved.
The economics of taking part in WAF: What to expect and how to raise funding.
The WAF Grants: How to apply.

Session 2: How to Take Part

Tuesday 22 October 2024, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom

Meet the team and talk about ideas for getting involved with WAF 6 - 22 June 2025.

We'll cover:

Getting involved: Step by Step
Finding a venue
WAF Grants

Session 3: WAF Artists and Venues Matchmaking & Registrations

Tuesday 26 November 2024, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom

An opportunity for WAF Creatives to meet the Venues! You can start looking for your venues now on our WAF Venue Directory.

We'll also be providing guidance on the registration process for Early Birds.

Session 4: Accessibility Training (TBC)

TBC December 2024 on Zoom

Disability Confidence in Customer Service Training - Delivered in partnership with Goss Consultancy

This session for participating WAF artists will:

Increase understanding of the key terms around access and Equality Diversity & Inclusion and how they relate to each other.
Enable delegates to feel more confident around disability and focus on disability confident customer service.
Give delegates the facts and figures to reinforce the moral / legal / business case. Ensure a high-level understanding of the social model and how it impacts on disability confidence.
Ensure a high-level understanding of the social model and how it impacts on disability confidence.

All WAF Creatives welcome; strongly advised for WAF Grantees.

This session is for creatives participating in our 2025 festival. If you have registered an event with us, WAF Producer Cath Mattos will email you the Zoom link ahead of the session. If you have not received the email 24 hours before the event, please contact Cath directly: cath.mattos@richmondandwandsworth.gov.uk

Session 5: WAF Registration support

Tuesday 14 January 2025, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom

Help with your WAF online registrations and guidance on creating your event listings.

We'll cover:

Completing registrations via My Fringe
Providing great copy, images and other media for your listing

Session 6: WAF Ticketing & Registration support

Tuesday 4 February 2025, 6pm - 7.30pm

Help with your WAF online registrations plus an opportunity to discuss pricing strategies and ticketing.

We'll cover:

Completing registrations via My Fringe
How to price your events realistically
Creating your own ticket offers (and the low down on our multi-buy and artist offers)
Complimentary tickets
How our Box Office system works

Session 7: Marketing

Tuesday 11 March 2025, 6pm - 7.30pm on Zoom

Advice and support for marketing your WAF event. We'll talk you through our publicity campaign, provide advice for creating marketing and audience development plans, and answer any questions.

Session 8: Introduction to the Green Book

TBC March 2025 on Zoom

ur guest speaker will introduce you to The Theatre Green Book. The Theatre Green Book has brought together theatre-makers and sustainability experts to create a common standard for making theatre sustainably. By everyone working together to meet these standards we can all help make Wandsworth Arts Fringe more sustainable, and support the council’s goal to become a Carbon Neutral Council by 2030, a Net Zero Borough by 2043.

The session will cover:

The aims and objectives of the Theatre Green Book, and the benefit of using is as part of your artistic practise
How to use the Theatre Green Book
How to meet the Green Book ‘baseline’ standard

Session 9: Evaluation

TBC May 2025 on Zoom

Introduction to evaluation and creative methods for evaluation

Evaluation is a process of finding out how a project or activity is working/has worked, what difference it has made to those involved, and what can be learnt. It can help you plan future projects and activities, make decisions about what you do, document and tell the story of your work, and evidence your impact to others. Anyone can do evaluation, and it can be fun and creative too.

In this interactive 1.5-hour online workshop we will cover:

An introduction to evaluation and creative methods
Planning a small-scale project/event evaluation
Examples of using creative evaluation methods

We will have time for Q&A and support one another with ideas and solutions

This session will be led by Chris Hayes, Research Consultant at Live Projects. Chris is an experienced researcher and evaluator passionate about helping community and creative organisations document and tell their stories in meaningful and inclusive ways.

Post-festival reflections and evaluation

Tuesday 22 July 2025, 6pm - 7.30pm

Let's share our learnings from this year: we'll share our stats and anything we have learnt this year, and you can tell us what you thought of it all and what you have found out too!

To get the Zoom sign up to our Creative Practitioners mailing list or complete an Expression of Interest form.

WAF Creatives Sessions

Creatives Sessions