To update Members of the activity since the Festivals Review, which reported to the former Social and Economic Development Scrutiny Committee in November 2003, and report on the current position in respect to the Festivals that have taken place in the County, from October 2004.

Members received an update on the activity since the Festivals Review, which had been approved by the former Social and Economic Development Scrutiny Committee in November 2003. 

Details of current position in respect of Festivals that had taken place in the County from October 2004 were contained in the report.

The Chairman welcomed invitees from the Leominster Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival and the Three Choirs Festival.  The representatives gave an opening address and then responded to questions from the Committee as summarised below.

Mr. Attwood, Chairman of the Leominster Festival, informed the Committee that this year’s festival had been a success, with the appearance of the Tashi Lhunpo Monks the highlight and that next year’s Festival had already been planned without the aid of a grant from the Council.  Funding was instead being gained from local sponsors.  Members were informed about the difficulty of recruiting new volunteers to help organise the Festival despite a high profile recruitment campaign.

Mr. Brookes, Chairman of the Ledbury Poetry Festival (LPF), reported to the Committee that the Festival had enjoyed record ticket sales and was the largest poetry festival in the Country.  He explained that the LPF was not just a ten-day event in the summer with other events being held throughout the year.  He informed Members that the LPF’s community programme cost about £20,000 a year to deliver.  He believed that it was a great shame that Herefordshire Council could not provide the LPF with a Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Dr. Bennett, Director LPF, called for Herefordshire Council to provide LPF with an SLA as recommended by the Festivals Review Group.

The Chairman commented that the Festivals Review Group had recommended that the LPF be awarded a SLA, however, budget constraints had prevented the implementation of the recommendation at this time.

Mr Wilding, Chairman of the Three Choirs Festival, Hereford, informed Members that the Three Choirs Festival was one of the oldest music festivals in Europe and had been running for over 300 years.  He reported that the Festival was returning to Hereford in 2006 and that the Festival organisers were trying to widen the appeal of the festival.  He felt that the Festival was not appreciated locally as much as it might be and therefore next year there was going to be a greater emphasis on the fringe festival to try to encourage families and others who would not normally attend the festival to watch a performance or be involved in a workshop.  He conceded that tickets for the festival on the whole were not cheap, however, some cheaper tickets were available.  He reported the festival was trying to get young people more involved in the festival and that the fringe was currently trying to make arrangements to work with schools during next year’s festival.

Mr Dickinson, Administrator for the Three Choirs Festival, discussed a case study report completed by the Arts Council about the audience which had visited the festival in 2004 when the festival was hosted in Gloucester.  A copy of the Arts Council report had been circulated separately to Members.  Mr Dickinson stated that although the report was based on audience figures at Gloucester that the findings were relevant to Hereford as the audience for the festival was broadly similar each year.  He informed that Committee that 57% of visitors to the festival had stayed overnight when visiting the festival, 45% of visitors had travelled over 60 miles to attend and the average spend on tickets per person at the festival was £55.32.  He explained that the report showed that the type of visitor to the festival was relatively affluent. This meant that the Three Choirs Festival was good for the local economy.  However, he felt that Hereford needed to provide more hospitality and local shops could do more to stock goods which would be attractive to the typical festival visitor.

Mr Dickinson called for the scheduled refurbishment of Hereford City centre in 2006 to be delayed until after the conclusion of next year’s festival.

The Chairman thanked the invitees for attending the meeting and congratulated them on the success of their respective festivals.  He informed them that he appreciated their financial needs and would ensure that these were brought to the Budget Panel’s attention in preparing the 2006/07 budget.