Festivals

Festival organisers are struggling to book big names in the UK as they are no longer an appealing destination for headline acts, it has been claimed.

The Observer reports the situation has arisen due to rising costs, increased competition and Brexit. Organisers say US acts, in particular, are proving challenging to tempt over as their financial expectations in a dynamic pricing landscape exceed the £2m fee an A-grade festival headliner in the UK can expect.

“The UK just isn’t an attractive offer at the moment,” says Sacha Lord, co-founder of Parklife Festival and night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester. “When you’re booking these huge global artists, you’re competing with the rest of the world. It’s really tough out there.”

Audience expectations for high-production-value performances and the rising cost of putting a show together and taking it on the road were also cited as causing problems for both artists and promoters.

There are likewise concerns about increased competition from the proliferation of small-scale festivals in recent years as councils increasingly look to rent out their green spaces.

Lord says these issues have been compounded by Brexit, as previously, UK dates could slot into a European tour. With an increased risk of equipment being held up at the border, Lord said: “If that happens, you’re going to lose your headliners. It’s caused major issues in the industry.” 

Kelly Wood, national organiser for live performance at the Musicians’ Union, added that there aren’t as many acts coming to the UK as factoring in time for travel checks makes it less appealing.

The organisation behind Vault Festival has announced plans to move into a new venue in central London to host its next festival in autumn 2024.

Vault Festival of live performance has taken place at The Vaults, a theatre and creative space beneath London Waterloo station, since 2012. Earlier this year, the venue announced it would no longer host the event, putting its future in doubt.

Vault says its new multi-space venue will be a “thriving artistic hub” located in a vacant space in Zone 1. Due to open in spring 2024, it will host “new creative ventures” in addition to the yearly festival and will be aimed at supporting early-career artists. 

The company is currency fundraising for access equipment in the new space.

Vault Director and Co-Founder Andy George said: “One of our non-negotiables for our new home was ensuring we have step-free access so more people can enjoy the work of our wonderful artists. But we don’t want to stop there. We want to install access tools throughout the building so that artists and audiences who are d/Deaf, deafened or living with sight loss can enjoy everything we and our artists do.”

He added: “We are pumped to have found a new home for VAULT following a challenging few years.”
 

£3m of cultural grants will be distributed to 21 organisations in Bradford ahead of the city’s tenure as City of Culture in 2025. 

The Cultural Capital Fund (CCF) investment programme was announced in June to improve access and facilities for residents and visitors for the duration of Bradford 2025, drive footfall and create new jobs in the local arts and culture sector.

Financed by Bradford District Council, the CCF offered a two-level grant scheme based on sector needs identified during the City of Culture bid process. Cultural organisations could apply for either grants of up to £5,000 or a minimum of £50,000. 

More than twenty successful recipients have been announced including Ilkley Playhouse and Mind The Gap theatre company, which both receive £10,000. 

The Mustafa Mount Art & Culture Centre will get £300,000 toward its refurbishment and development of a permanent gallery, while the African Caribbean Achievement Project will receive £280,000 to renovate its community centre.

Dan Bates, Executive Director at Bradford 2025, said there had been an “overwhelming response” to the grant fund, with applications far exceeding the available funding. 

 “The Cultural Capital Fund is a great example of our ambition to increase investment in the cultural infrastructure within the Bradford district, giving residents and visitors alike greater opportunity to experience the arts, culture and creativity during 2025 and beyond,” said Bates.

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, said: "As stated in Bradford Council’s 10-year strategy - Culture is Our Plan - we’re striving to ensure arts, culture and heritage activities can be accessed and are inclusive for everyone across the district; something that this grant aims to do. 

“These projects provide a real legacy for Bradford and its communities.”
 

The Lammermuir Festival has released an open letter to Creative Scotland calling on the funding body to change its system.

The letter was penned after the festival’s funding was cut, leaving its future uncertain. It accuses Creative Scotland of placing “Scotland’s cultural ecology on a downward trajectory”.

Organisers announced last week that the funder had withdrawn its support for the festival after 13 years, leaving it in “an urgent financial position”.

The open letter, addressed to Chief Executive of Creative Scotland Iain Munro and Chair Robert Wilson, has been signed by 362 composers, education workers, participants, supporters, audience members and local businesses.

It claimed that the festival’s 2023 funding application was rejected despite strong internal support.

“According to the panels judging Open Fund applications at Creative Scotland, Lammermuir Festival does not sufficiently align to your priorities,” the letter said.

“This is despite having the full support of the Music Officers at Creative Scotland who approved its application and strongly recommended funding without conditions.”

The letter outlined the festival’s cultural, community and economic benefits, which include giving work to 350 musicians a year, securing returns of £750,000 for East Lothian annually, working with 1,700 children, young people and adults over two years as part of the McOpera programme and collaborating with diverse local community groups.

“This decision by Creative Scotland flies in the face of the expressions of support for culture in Scotland, and in particular for festivals, that the First Minister Humza Yousaf, Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy Neil Gray, and Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Angus Robertson have made in recent days,” the letter said.

“The Open Fund process appears to have no strategic overview of provision, and no clear artistic, quality or geographic priorities.”

It added that Creative Scotland’s process “places huge pressure on organisations” and said that invitations to make multiple applications for the same activity took the festival’s “nerves to the wire”, with a final verdict issued just 16 days before the festival began.

“Without Creative Scotland’s support the Lammermuir Festival’s future is under threat,” the letter said.

“Your decision not to fund the 2023 festival destabilises the organisation and undermines the festival’s ability to plan for or run a festival in 2024 and beyond. In order to secure the future of this festival beyond 2023, urgent support is needed.”

It called on the funder to reverse its decision. “This festival cannot be allowed to disappear,” it concluded.
 

Organisers of a prominent festival in the UK’s classical music calendar have said they are “appalled and saddened” by Creative Scotland’s decision not to offer funding this year.

Lammermuir Festival, which takes place through September in East Lothian, applied for funding through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund.

The festival has been in receipt of grants for the last 13 years, equating to up to 23% of its festival budget each year.

The news it missed out on funding in 2023 came 16 days before this year’s festival opened and followed multiple applications for funding, all of which were turned down.

A statement from the Chair and trustees of the festival said the funding “is crucial investment in an area of Scotland which does not have regular high-quality cultural events drawing audiences to the area”.

“To deliver this year’s festival as planned we shall be obliged to use a significant proportion of our reserves which we have judiciously built up over many years.

“Without Creative Scotland support the Lammermuir Festival’s future is under threat. We urge Creative Scotland to reconsider their decision and secure the future of Lammermuir Festival.” 

A spokesperson for Creative Scotland told The Herald: “Demand for Creative Scotland’s funding is increasing, and we receive far more applications than we have the budget to support.

“Whilst we recognise the important contribution Lammermuir Festival makes to Scotland's music sector, unfortunately, difficult decisions had to be made and we were unable to support their most recent applications.”

Average attendance figures for the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this year were significantly up on 2019.

According to figures released by the BBC, more than half the main evening concerts at the venue sold out, with an average audience attendance across the season at the Hall of 93%. This is up seven percentage points on pre-pandemic levels in 2019. 

Nearly half (47%) of audiences at the Royal Albert Hall were attending a Prom for the first time.

Meanwhile, nearly one million people watched the First Night of the Proms on BBC Two, its strongest overnight TV audience since 2009. A peak audience of 3.5 million people watched the Last Night of the Proms on BBC One.

Sam Jackson, Controller of BBC Radio 3 said: "This has been a fantastic year for the Proms, and demonstrates the country’s appetite for classical music from the BBC. 

"In multiple ways, audiences are higher than pre-pandemic figures, and I’m particularly pleased to see so many young people coming to classical music, often for the very first time."

A record number of tourists visited Coventry last year, providing a financial boost of £750m to the city's economy, with the rise attributed in part to the City of Culture festival.

The BBC reports that more than 11 million people paid a visit to the city in 2022, an increase of 3m from the previous year, and 1m more than the previous record in 2019.

In 2019, tourists brought in £600m in extra revenue to the city, and three years later, this rose to £750.86m, a report by Global Tourism Solutions reveals.

"Pre-pandemic we saw 10m visitors come to Coventry and we were celebrating that year," Paul Jones, the managing director of Destination Coventry told the BBC.

"The pandemic had a really decimating effect on our visitor economy, it wiped 60% off in terms of volume and value of visitors.

"We were hopeful 2022 would be a great year but we weren't sure if we'd get back to those pre-pandemic levels, so to add a million visitors on top of our record year, we were very happy."

"You can't deny the fact that the City of Culture programme really shone a spotlight on Coventry internationally."