Photo credit: Amy Fern
Dulcie Horn is the founder of Chuffed, a creative strategy studio working across festivals and cultural events, with a focus on brand strategy and social storytelling.
Her work centres on how festivals are experienced and communicated in real time — from leading on-site media teams to shaping the way audiences engage with events beyond the physical space. Operating internationally, Chuffed has built a reputation for delivering social-first coverage that reflects the culture on the ground rather than simply documenting it.
Alongside this, Horn has been vocal about the need for greater gender representation within festival media spaces, an area that continues to lag behind other parts of the industry.
How was your journey into music and what inspired you to launch Chuffed?
I have been lucky enough to be attending festivals since I was 11 and have always been massively passionate about them, working full seasons since I was 18 and just keen to do anything that allowed me to go to more! I think they’re incredibly important cultural spaces and one of the things that the UK does amazingly well - I think they’re more important than they’ve ever been.
I’ve always been pretty online and creative. I originally wanted to work in magazines (RIP!), so marketing felt like a pretty natural path. I landed a job at Boomtown doing a mix of customer service and digital marketing and from there became the digital marketing manager. I picked up more clients along the way, and became known for doing strong live social coverage at festivals before that was really much of a thing. Eventually, I stepped out and started Chuffed because I wanted the freedom to work with more of the people, brands and events I believed in.
When establishing Chuffed, what proved most difficult -e.g. building the right team, securing clients, or defining the studio’s creative positioning? What helped you navigate that phase?
Scaling, absolutely. Getting the right amount of work in, and charging enough for it, has probably been the hardest part. The bigger the team gets, the bigger the risk gets too… I’ve had some pretty spicy years with five people on the team, low resilience in the business, and the reality of me not actually earning any more money for carrying all of that. The business side has definitely been a huge learning curve, and the festival industry is its own beast as well, seasonal, fast-moving, and often quite unpredictable. I think we came into it quite naively, and a lot of that phase was about learning in real time how to build something sustainable, not just exciting.
What helped, unfortunately, was not very sexy! It was experience earned the hard way, learning to be more realistic about capacity, more confident on pricing, and more honest with myself.
For anyone hoping to work in your field - e.g. festival production, marketing, or cultural strategy - what skills should they focus on developing early in their careers?
For anyone wanting to get into marketing, brand strategy or this world more broadly, my biggest advice is just to get stuck in. I had a couple of my own little businesses in my early 20s that I marketed on Facebook and Instagram, I offered to help with socials for employers I was working for, and volunteered with charities and other projects wherever I could.
There is also so much free information online now that you can teach yourself a huge amount. But beyond that, I think one of the most valuable things you can do early on is develop your eye, really pay attention to what makes people care, what builds trust, what creates a feeling, what makes someone want to be part of something. That’s the bit that moves you beyond just posting content and into understanding brand and audience properly.
The beauty of marketing and social media is that you do not need to wait for permission to start. You can build something, grow an audience, experiment with ideas and learn by doing, even if you do not have a product to sell yet. So much of what I know has come from passion projects over the years, from running a festival blog to posting silly videos online, because all of it teaches you how people connect.
What’s your best networking tip to connect with the right people in the industry?
Go out!!!! A huge part of my network came from clubbing a lot in my early 20s and bopping around the festival scene. So much of this industry is built on real relationships, and those tend to grow from shared spaces, shared interests and just being around.
Say yes to events that interest you, be part of your community, join the WhatsApp groups, and get involved in what’s happening around you. And don’t just think about networking in terms of what other people can do for you - recommend people to each other, connect others, be generous. One of my greatest joys in life is introducing people who should know each other, and that always comes back around in some form.
Many people enter the industry through short-term or freelance work. How can early-career professionals turn those opportunities into sustainable careers?
There’s a lot of opportunity out there for content creators and creative marketing freelancers, and it’s a brilliant space to build a sustainable career because, unlike a lot of festival work, it exists year-round!! For me, taste is everything in this kind of role - you need to keep tuning it, practising, and sharpening your skills, because the platforms and the culture are always moving.
The real magic is when creative ability comes with organisation, reliability and strategic thinking. That’s the killer combo. Plenty of people can make nice things, but the people who build lasting careers are the ones who can also deliver consistently, communicate well, and understand the bigger picture.
Photo credit: Amy Fern
Who are some women who have inspired your approach to work and leadership?
So many!! I’ve been lucky enough to work with some real powerhouses over the years. I’ve spent plenty of time in Event Control at festivals and always loved watching brilliant operation leads in action - people like Judy, Poppy and Lou from my Boomtown days all taught me a lot about how comms and marketing intersects with what’s actually happening on the ground.
The fantastic Anna Wade, who I worked under at Boomtown and who pushed some really important boundary-breaking work around harm reduction and more. Penny Warner at Team Love, who is leading in such an ethical and values-led way. And I always love seeing the rare female festival directors doing their thing - Vicky Fenton from Wild Wood Disco, Elle Beattie from Field Maneuvers and Marjana Jaidi from Oasis Festival.
What is one of the most important leadership lessons you’ve learned?
Go on holiday. Having no time off and being really stressed is counter-productive. In the long run, you get less done, your judgement gets worse, you become reactive and just a bit of an arsehole! I really struggle working with people when I can tell they’re not looking after themselves properly, because it always seeps into how they lead.
It felt impossible to take proper time off in the early years of Chuffed, but now it’s a non-negotiable. I will always do better, more creative work and be a better person to work with when I’ve had a break.
