York Zine Fest
By
Jade Blood and Kayti Peschki
A photograph of a busy event with book stalls and people browsing.
York Zine Fest is a bi-annual not for profit FREE public event organised by Jade Blood and Kayti Peschki.
This also coincides with a free monthly zine club, all held at The Crescent Community Venue. Aims- to provide platform for self publishing artists, zine makers, grassroots podcasts etc around The North and beyond. -To make the platform affordable, as true to DIY ethics as possible- a safe space for stall holders and attendees to meet and hang out (not just a sell sell sell vibe- hence the importance of location- has multi rooms w/ video games, pool, bar. - To be as inclusive as possible but in the favour of 'small scale' makers, marginalised voices, those who would benefit from having a cheap stall and create limited edition print runs. Makers with an ecological/political awareness and also organisations that provide rad/co-op values are always very welcome (like Footprints Leeds for example) -this basically means we rarely turn people away, unless they don't make any zines or they are from a or dating app and want to pay to have a presence! (true life example!) -Truly non-for profit- as in, the organisers take half a day rate to organise the event and the rest pays for the space rental and posters. - Flexible and open to collaborate- if makers want to organise stall shares- we are totally down with that- especially if not for profit and only swapping zines with others. We also welcome workshop ideas and leave workshop space throughout the events for free zine making and also for artists who have wanted to run stamp making, journaling or social art projects. -Every event is different and we learn more each time- we have had food available at a few events from local coffee shops/restaurants, guest DJ sets from friends and touring bands in the front bar, food bank collection and local political leaflet drops. Whilst Kayti focuses on the monthly Zine club, Jade runs a school Zine club and works with young people over the year to create their own stall. The ALL AGES aspect is as important as the FREE aspect- in a city which has little contemporary culture, or much for free (especially for it's residents!- listen up York Council!) we, as our peers do with the local music scene- work from a generous model which has worked for DIY culture for many years.
More information: https://www.instagram.com/yorkzinefest/
https://yorkzinefest.wixsite.com/mysite
