A festival powered by people. Meet the people behind Freedom Festival Arts Trust.

Meet The Team

We bring thousands of people together through our annual festival and year-round artistic and creative programme of performances, installations, talent development programmes and targeted participatory work to excite, inspire, challenge, empower and provoke.

Not only do we produce Hull's famous Freedom Festival, we also support artists year-round, work within UK and international networks, and produce other staple work and projects in Hull's cultural calendar.

We celebrate Hull’s independent spirit and extraordinary heritage working closely with artists, creative organisations, the private sector, academic partners, third-sector organisations, families, individuals, and community groups to deliver year-round creative activity and a world-class annual arts festival.

We believe it's important to generate and nurture new ideas, so we are passionate about supporting artists to develop ideas and reinvent art forms. We believe in supporting people from all walks of life to explore the arts as we believe that the arts are central to the well-being of our society.

Our Team

Festival Director

Phil Hargreaves

Phil Hargreaves is an award-winning cultural leader whose passion is for transforming public spaces and how people experience culture. Phil has a vast amount of experience curating and producing a diverse range of cultural experiences from large-scale outdoor productions/festivals to intimate light installations to 1-2-1 performances to large-scale tours. Phil has a dynamic and passionate approach to curating festivals with a thirst for building and developing new relationships, touring networks and audiences. Phil is a keen supporter of artists and ensuring everyone can access culture. He takes pride in being able to create environments that allow artist to thrive and audiences to have the best experiences.

Over his career Phil has had the honour of working with some incredible creative talents which include Bradford Council on their bid for UK City of Culture and the flagship festival programmes BD:Festival and BD:IsLiT, Déda & Derby Festé, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Joss Arnott Dance, Highly Sprung Performance, Dan Daw Creative projects, Edinburgh Fringe Society, Overhead Project, 2Faced Dance Company, HumanHood and Southpaw Dance.

Phil is delighted to be joining Freedom Festival Arts Trust as the Festival Director to curate our artistic programmes and set our strategic direction from 2025 onwards , after spending many years as an audience member. He can’t wait to continue to work with local, national and international artists and communities to bring public space to life and share local stories on a national and international platform!

Business Development Manager

Kathryn Biggin

Kathryn is our Business Development Manager and is responsible for building and maintaining the relationships we have with our local partners. Kathryn graduated with a degree in Theatre and Media studies and has spent most of her career in London working in business development and events covering unique venues, like the Museum of London, before moving agency-side, working on international event programmes. Following a move to Hull in 2017, Kathryn spent five years working as a charity manager, which has given her a great understanding of the third sector, as well as the local business and grant-giving landscape. Kathryn has always loved being client-facing and loves building relationships with partners, and is so excited to be working for FFAT.

Producer

Ian Morley

Ian is a creative professional and is exceptionally passionate about supporting and developing artists and creative encounters. He has worked in the arts sector in Yorkshire for over 20 years, taking on many roles from producing outdoor festivals and events to programming venues, intimate theatre projects, touring small-scale theatre, producing community theatre projects and performing, stage managing and leading creative workshops. Ian was previously Arts Development Officer at BMBC, Head of Programming and Artist Development at the Civic in Barnsley and most recently Programme Manager for The Royal and Derngate in Northampton. He is super excited to be working at Freedom Festival.

Engagement Producer

Katie Atkins

Katie is a local Hull lass with a passion for the city and its people. She graduated from Hull University in 2004 with a degree in English Literature and went on to teach in a secondary school for almost 10 years. 2017 was a transformative year for the city of Hull and Katie as she switched careers and began developing her experience in the arts through freelancing for the City of Culture programme and becoming one of Hull’s thousands of blue-coated volunteers. She joined the team who managed the Hull volunteer programme in 2018 with Absolutely Cultured, and went on to manage their community engagement programme. In 2022, Katie took on the role of Head of Volunteering in Leeds for LEEDS 2023, recruiting and deploying over 1000 volunteers to support its year of culture. Freedom Festival is one of Katie’s biggest loves and she is thrilled to have joined the team.

Administration Manager & Digital Content Coordinator

Holly Philo

As Admin Manager & Digital Content Coordinator, Holly manages the office, supports finance and HR and coordinates the organisation’s digital communications, which includes everything from social media to our monthly newsletters. After completing her degree in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Hull, she began her career on Hull City Council’s Events Team, working closely with VHEY and the Hull 2017 City of Culture team. She’s supported delivery of events from Spencer Tunick’s Sea of Hull and Gratte Ciel’s Place Des Anges, to the annual Christmas Lights Switch On and Hull Fair. She has been with the team since 2021 and has really enjoyed developing her role and expanding her skills and creativity in the arts sector.

Freelance Design Lead

Jessy Zschorn

Jessy is the creative behind Freedom Festival’s design and visuals. Jessy has mastery in a diverse range of visual communication skills including illustration, photography, design, and web development, and after founding her own design agency and operating as a freelance designer, she has an established reputation for her incredible work. She is a people person who enjoys immersing herself in new cultures and is often out on solo adventures, seeking to expand her knowledge and understanding of the world. She’s a powerhouse!

TG Events Ltd

TG Events are the brilliant production team backstage of the events we do. From staging to sound to safety, they do it all. Their team consists of Tim Garbutt, Adam Long, Danny Owen and Danny O’Shea as well as other great suppliers they bring in.

Our Board

Chair

Karen Hall

Karen has both a charity and commercial background and continues to support local charities with her experience in business management from her exposure to national and international operations. She has worked closely with trustee boards and executive teams, and throughout her business career has worked alongside creative and marketing teams working on many high-profile projects. She is looking forward to helping FFAT further develop the narrative and programme for the issues it seeks to represent for Hull and Freedom On Tour.

Trustee

Trish Dalby

A Hull girl through and through, Trish retired as Deputy Chief Executive from Hull City Council in 2019. Since retirement, Trish has continued her commitment to the City in a number of voluntary roles, including taking on the Chair of Generation Hull in 2021, the city’s Local Cultural Education Partnership. Generation Hull has a mission to support schools and creative organisations in Hull to work together making sure that our children and young people get the best creative experiences possible and access to the wonderful cultural opportunities in our city.

Trustee

Councillor Rob Pritchard

Rob feels honoured to live in Hull and has had a varied career, from starting out working in retail, working as a nurse, bank clerk, chief officer of several voluntary and community organisations, and now a City Councillor. He has a passion for his city and loves being involved in making it a better place to live. He loves the arts in all its forms, and feels privileged to be the Portfolio Holder for Culture, where he gets to meet amazing people from around the city and beyond. Rob believes he wouldn’t have achieved half as much as he has without his amazing wife Linda, who he has been with for over 30 years.

Trustee

Sally Christopher

Sally is passionate about festivals, live events and the Arts, with a particular knowledge of festivals and over twenty years of experience and industry knowledge, including working on Glastonbury Festival, Norfolk and Norwich Festival and Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sally is also a fan of large-scale events and mass participation projects, having worked as part of the Big Dance 2010/12, the Ceremonies teams delivering London 2012 and Rugby World Cup 2015. Sally has a variety of roles under her belt along with a Masters in Arts Management and Cultural Policy and Undergraduate Degree in English Literature and Drama.

Trustee

Louise Alford

Louise is an accomplished professional major gift fundraiser who joined the board in 2023. Louise brings her unique skills and knowledge of fundraising for charities, business strategy, driving complex campaigns and building relationships.

Trustee

Mark Moore

Mark’s expertise on the Trustee Board is from being a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience in senior financial management. Based in Hull, he lives locally and is passionate about live performance, either in traditional settings or through innovation that is delivered by Freedom. His recent roles have included being the Financial Director for a leading Northern Theatre, helping it through the challenging landscape Arts and Culture is going through. Mark believes we all have a role to play in making our region and communities better, and prior to joining Freedom, for 8 years he worked as a board member for a local college.