Festival experience could save money

9:36am Wed Jan 11, 2012

Having read in the Advertiser that Newark Town Council has approved an expenditure of £5,000 towards a feasibility study, my immediate thought was not is a music festival a good idea, but is spending that much on deciding whether or not to hold a festival a good idea.

I wonder what my friends and fellow organisers of the Newark Jazz Festival and Newark Blues Festival, who would both appreciate some investment in their events, make of it.

As a born and bred Newarker, now living in Southwell, expenditure by the town council does not per se affect me, though were Newark and Sherwood District Council to commit a similar sum, as they have been asked, I would be concerned.

Both authorities have run successful annual events on the riverside before and one would have thought they had the knowledge, experience and evidence to work out between them whether running a festival would pay.

Were Newark to make a name for itself in some specialist field (which could be as a jazz or blues venue) one suspects the catalyst for this would be a local or a group of local enthusiasts.

If bringing in out-of-town money is not a significant part of the remit, then the event is purely something put on for the enjoyment of the locals.

There is nothing wrong with that if the locals are happy to pay, because corporate sponsorship of sufficient magnitude is unlikely to be available.

I instigated the Southwell folk festival in 2006, with the first festival taking place a year later.

While we started fairly small, we have grown considerably and can now accommodate 4,000 on site with more than 3,000 under cover, camping for nearly 1,000 and all the local B&Bs and hotels full.

There is, as a result, a sizeable boost to the local economy.

As an added bonus, the locals love the atmosphere generated around the town over the weekend.

Over the years we have benefited from various grants, which enabled us to get to a break-even position last year, without any appreciable amounts of financial support.

Our own town council gives what support it can (financially very little) and we get very little financial support from the district council.

The views expressed here are my own and not necessarily those of my committee or fellow directors.

However, I would personally be happy to talk to Newark Town Council and give whatever help I can without them needing to pay just to find out if a festival is a practical possibility.

— MIKE KIRRAGE, festival director, The Gate to Southwell Folk Festival Ltd.