Matthew Slotover

So you can live there, work a couple of days in London, easy access for people to come and see you or for you to go there.

And, you know, artists need somewhere cheap with space.

And Tracy always talks about Margates being somewhere she can think because, you know, there's this big open sky.

The sky is incredible there.

And you can go out to the sea and you're by yourself and even walk around town.

You know, it's just, it just feels, you feel free there.

You don't feel the pressures that you feel in a big city, which for some artists, that's really beneficial.

There's something very credible about it being artist-led, you're absolutely right.

I think when things are too manufactured by funding, I don't, you know, I'm not against Arts Council funding, I think it's great, and everyone wants more.

Having said that, when things are organically done without funding by artists...

Somehow the art world thinks, well, there must be something going on here.

Someone's not trying to promote this.

So Lindsay has been super important.

She started this festival called Off Season, which is in January.

It's a weekend in January.

And the first one was last year.

The second one was this year.

And I think about six weeks before it started, she just said to everyone in town, if you're an artist, put something on, we'll list it.

It could be in a restaurant, it could be in a studio, it could be in a bar, whatever it's like.

And I think the first year there were 100 shows, the second year there were 150, a lot down one road, North Down Road, and a lot of people came.