Sleep easy in a festival pod
Flanders’ festivals are enthusiastic about an innovative summer accommodation inspired by honeycombs and built at sheltered workshops
Sleep like the bees
The same thing happened to Barbara Vanthorre during the Gentse Feesten almost 10 years ago. The difference between you and her is that she took a few practical steps to solve her (and maybe your) problem. Both festival organisers and visitors are embracing her idea of outdoor private berths, cutely stacked up to resemble a honeycomb.
The prototype of B&Bee will premiere at this summer’s Gentse Feesten. “A media partner will introduce a competition in which everyone can win a night at the Gentse Feesten,” Vanthorre explains.
As the operational manager of Con-Brio, a sheltered workshop in the Ghent district of Sint-Amandsberg, Vanthorre is always looking for niches to keep her workers and staff active, especially during crisis periods. With Ron Hermans, the director of the Labeur sheltered workshop, she pitched this “honeycomb hotel” at an innovation meeting in Antwerp. “It really started off as a joke,” she says, “but to my surprise it won the first prize of €1,000.”
It was only the beginning. “The unexpected victory gave us the opportunity to appear in front of a professional committee that would judge the idea on its potential. If they found it interesting enough, a consultancy would have a longer look at it.” To prepare for this test they got in touch with a few organisers and mayors of festival cities, who were all very enthusiastic.
Ready for 2015
The committee’s approval brought the duo together with Marc Bogaert, the innovation manager at business consultancy One Small Step in Lennik, Flemish Brabant. Simultaneously, Ingrid Lieten, the Flemish minister of innovation, put out a call for innovative projects. Again they were picked as showing great potential, this time winning €50,000.
It really started off as a joke, but to my surprise it won the first prize
“As a sheltered workshop we have know-how in the cleaning and construction industry, but not in design,” Vanthorre says. So they used the money to do business with the Mechelen-based bureau Achilles Design, developing their B&Bee prototype with six cylinder-shaped sleeping cells. “It will be evaluated by future festival clients before we make the definite version, which should be ready for the 2015 festival season.”
With 1.4 x 2-metre mattresses that unfold into a sofa, space under the bed for luggage, sound-protected walls, electricity, light and a locker for your valuables, the pods provide everything you could need during a festival. Cells will be stacked up to four high.
Calling business angels
The project is now entering one of the most exciting stages. “At the end of the month, we are meeting a bunch of risk investors from Business Angels Network Vlaanderen,” says Vanthorre. “We can tell them that festival organisers are already calling us about the product. I can’t tell you yet which festivals are interested, because we’re still negotiating.”
Future festivals can all order their own cells. “Depending on their policy, they decide about the price and the outside decoration,” Vanthorre explains. “Some festivals will probably want to keep the costs for a night as cheap as possible, putting the names of the sponsors upfront, while others will ask for more competitive rates.”
Con-Brio and Labeur will always provide the basic construction, setting up and breaking down the honeycomb and doing the maintenance. With a roster of 50 employees each, they are looking forward to the job. “Most of our workers don’t go much further than their own street, so working at a festival site could be a big adventure and motivation for them.”
Vanthorre is thinking even further ahead. “We also want to attract foreign festivals such as Glastonbury in the UK and Sziget in Budapest. Why not? We probably won’t cross the Channel for one festival, but if we can combine 10, we only have to do the transport once.”
Photo courtesy Achilles Design/Con-Brio
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