‘I’ve seen tears, joy and people on their feet applauding – I’ll never forget it’
EMOTIVE: The improvised street theatre of Kamchatka in 2016
Freedom Festival chief Mikey Martins is leaving Hull for a new role in the Netherlands. He spoke to Co-Editor Simon Bristow
Mikey Martins orders tea and a toastie from the café in Waterstones and sits down to talk about the next chapter in his life, and the one he is about to turn a page on.
After nearly nine years as CEO and artistic director of Freedom Festival Arts Trust he is preparing to depart for a new role, as director of the Oerol Fetival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands.
With one last Freedom Festival to curate, he also wants to ensure he can hit the ground running when beginning his new venture.
That includes the need to learn Dutch “really quickly”.
It’s fortunate, then, that Mikey cannot just juggle literally, having cut his teeth as a street performer, he is also more than capable of keeping several plates spinning in his head.
The proof of that is the cultural legacy he will leave behind when he makes what he describes as the “bitter-sweet” move from Hull.
Gravity and Other Myths’ production of BACKBONE in 2022
But first the bad news. There will be no return of the hugely popular Awakening festival this year.
This is because an application to the Government’s Levelling Up funds failed, and Mikey did not want to compromise on scale or quality with what was left.
“It’s a really tricky situation,” Mikey said. “If there’s only X amount of money on the table do you then go ahead and do an event which is much smaller than the first two?
“When we discussed it as a team I thought that’s really dangerous. You’ve just had two successful editions, the thing is growing, you want it to keep growing to attract better support.
“So we’re gutted. But at the same time I think what it does, with Freedom Festival Arts Trust, it gives you a moment to think OK, that model didn’t work in 2024, we need to reimagine how we can bring The Awakening back, all-singing, all-dancing, in 25/26.
‘BITTERSWEET MOMENT’: Mikey Martins
“And actually 25’s a great year for it because of all the Maritime stuff hopefully opening on time. It’s not dead but it’s having a pause.”
Funding this summer’s Freedom Festival is also “challenging”.
He is adamant, however, that the loss of The Awakening in no way influenced his decision to leave.
“No, not at all. To be honest, this invitation, I was kind of head-hunted last August and conversations have been going on for months and months.
“There’s never a good time to leave, but the last thing you want to do is leave when things are really challenging. I’m finding that quite difficult.
“It’s not about that either. I was right up for a new fight.”
SELECT AUDIENCE: Mikey interviewing former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2017
Mikey has had a relationship with the Dutch festival since 2005, and previously performed there as an artist.
“It’s a really special festival in a really special place and as someone who’s always been very, very international I’ve always imagined I might be able to run a festival in a different country,” he said.
“To be offered it at 51 years old when it felt like it would never come… it’s very exciting but also quite terrifying and I am going to have to learn Dutch really quickly.”
Mikey officially leaves his current role in April, but it’s unlikely he will not be here when this year’s Freedom Festival gets under way at the end of August.
No offence to previous incarnations, but a festival which used to book Peter Andre as one of its headline acts has unarguably become more entertaining, spectacular, complex, nuanced, challenging and fun since Mikey took the reins in 2015.
He said: “I am really sad to leave. It’s a really weird bitter-sweet thing because on the one hand I’m really excited about another challenge, on the other hand your work is never done, is it?
“And there was so much more I wanted to do in Hull.
“In 2015 when I was interviewed for this job, they talked a lot about concepts of freedom and about the origins of Wilberforce.
“And for me creatively, the challenge of being able to evolve an already very successful, brilliant festival into something which could talk more about social issues, could talk more about identity and racism and empowerment and opportunity and democracy – for me it felt like an impossible task which I couldn’t resist.
“It does entertain, it can be spectacular with enough money to put on big shows. It can do many, many things but also it talks about stuff and I think people appreciate that.
“And I hope that’s the bit that I leave behind.”
Giraffes by Compagnie Off in 2017
As well as transforming Freedom into one of the leading international arts festivals in the country, its impact locally under Mikey’s stewardship has been substantial.
On top of its artistic and community achievements, last year alone it was estimated to have delivered £4m into the local economy.
Complementing it with The Awakening is one of Mikey’s proudest achievements, as was delivering the UK premiere of the Hull Vigil in 2021-22.
It seems unfair to ask for his personal highlights – there have been so many – but away from the performances there was an interview in front of a select young audience with Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General, in 2017.
The artists and shows he mentions include Deblozay by Rara Woulib in 2022, Les Girafes in 2017, Gravity and Other Myths’ production of BACKBONE in 2022, and the improvised street theatre of Kamchatka that moved people to tears in 2016.
Deblozay by Rara Woulib in 2022
One of the most memorable for anyone who witnessed or engaged with it, however, was Pig by UK collective Kaleider in 2018.
This saw the arrival of a car-sized transparent piggy bank, which invited people to put money into it for a “community fund” which could then be withdrawn – if everyone present agreed what to spend it on.
It prompted what has so far been the only police intervention in a Freedom Festival installation.
Matters came to a head when some members of the audience took exception to a homeless man trying to access the fund.
Mikey said: “It was totally mad. We put it in Beverley Gate at first, and what we hadn’t done was talk to the police about it and it was the summer when other local news outlets who won’t be mentioned were vilifying anyone who was homeless, calling them spice zombies.”
He happened to be there with the artist, Seth, when tempers frayed.
Mikey said: “He didn’t know we were part of the festival, just a couple of blokes standing there, and he said, ‘It says this is a community fund and you can take the money. I’m part of the community, aren’t I, so I can take it, right?’
“Seth said: ‘Well I suppose so, that’s kind of what it says, but I think it also says “When you agree”. Maybe you need to talk to other people and ask them’.
“So he went back and it was awful. People were like ‘Oh not you’. He was politely saying, ‘I’ve read the thing and I’d like to take a bit of money. Would that be ok?’ Got attacked.
“Everyone was saying, ‘You’re going to spend it on drugs, you’re going to do this, you’re going to do that’.
FESTIVAL FEET: Mikey dips his toes into a fun installation by Swoolish Garage in 2017
“And then a police officer, she didn’t know about the project, stepped in because it was getting a bit heated.
“And because she’d stepped in it got worse because then everybody else was like, ‘Oh yes, the authorities are here so we must be right and he must be wrong’.
“I then get a phone call from a chief inspector, I can’t remember her name but she was fantastic.
“And I will never forget this conversation in my entire life. She said: ‘Mikey, are you OK that because of your art pig people are going to die tonight?
‘There are known drug users, we can see them on CCTV, they’re taking money, there are going to be overdoses tonight’.
Pig by UK collective Kaleider in 2018
“I said: ‘OK, we are making a lot of assumptions here, aren’t we? Can you come and meet for a coffee, can we have a chat?’
“So she comes down and I explain the whole thing.
“I said look, the point of this is to challenge people’s perceptions of charity, first thing, and also to see if people can agree about money. It’s about democracy.
“I know it’s going to be heated at times but your police officers cannot step in because if they do it will stop democracy.
“They said ‘We really get it, that’s amazing’.”
Looking back on all the events, he said: “I think I’ll never forget those moments when shows that I get really excited about, when I see the audience at the end of it, particularly some of the indoor circus stuff, on their feet applauding, I think professionally that’s the most beautiful thing I’ll take from Hull.
“It’s seeing that reaction, because I don’t come from a cultured family, I don’t come from wealth, I wasn’t brought up with this stuff, I discovered it through my life.
“I come from a very working-class family [in Cornwall] and left home when I was very young and ended up being a street performer in Covent Garden.
“I discovered this and it changed everything.
“So I kind of like it when I see people, especially just getting through it, and I hope that they might think, ‘Oh maybe I could do that. Maybe I could be a circus performer’.”