Agenda item

To receive the report of the Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure that proposes the 2017-18 Festival and Events Programme

THIS ITEM HAS BEEN MARKED TO FOLLOW AND WILL BE CIRCULATED AS SOON AS IT HAS BECOME AVAILABLE.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Lise Noakes (Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure) and Jonathan Lund (Corporate Director) to present the report which proposed the 2017-18 Festival and Events Programme to the Committee.

Councillor Noakes shared details of the 2016-17 Festival and Events Programme and commented how incredible it had been. She said that the 2017-18 programme would continue this trend. She informed the Committee that Marketing Gloucester Limited (MGL) remained a key partner in delivering events for the City and that they had begun to monitor events to gauge their success, as shown in the report. However, she informed the Committee that due to financial constraints, Gloucester City Council would be reducing their contribution to MGL by £100,000 for 2017-18. Due to this, MGL would be given greater flexibility in deciding how to spend the funding it received and would not be given expected spends for individual events, but would be given direction as to what was required at each event.  Councillor Noakes concluded her presentation by stating that the Council was aiming for UK City of Culture status for 2025 and as part of working towards this had recently submitted a bid for Great Place Scheme, which would bring £1.5 million of funding into the City over 3 years. She explained that the results of this bid were expected by the end of March 2017.

Councillor Hampson welcomed the monitoring of events and that their success was being measured. He queried the details of paragraph 3.12 in the report and asked for clarification for how the Summer Sound event had been scheduled against Gloucester Quays food festival. Councillor Noakes explained that Gloucester Quays had rescheduled their event, as the weekend was a key weekend for footfall. She explained that clashes like this should be avoided in future as a shared diary had been put in place.

Councillor Wilson asked why some events in the report were marked TBC. Councillor Noakes apologised for this, as these were now confirmed but the information in the report was from before Christmas 2016.

Councillor Wilson praised some of the smaller and cheaper occurrences around the City, such as the installation of pianos in the city centre, and asked why this was not mentioned in the report. Councillor Noakes said that this had been an initiative of MGL and was not a Council event so was not in the report.

Councillor Hilton asked for clarity as to the ambition of the festivals over the following years. He stated that although all the events added vibrancy to the City, he was concerned that they did not act as an attractor for visitors. He asked if the Council should be looking to expand the scope of the festivals, to a potentially global audience. Councillor Noakes explained that part of the Great Place Scheme’s remit was linked to growing festivals and linking to heritage. She explained that as such the Gloucester History Festival was a key component of the Council ongoing festival programme and there were hopes to expand it further. She drew the Committee’s attention to paragraph 3.50 of the report, which outlined the desire to bring another event to the City during the years that the Tall Ships were absent.

Councillor Dee praised the events calendar and suggested that more be made of the City’s canal history. He suggested approaching the Inland Waterways Trust to arrange a canal festival, as he said this had been a great success in the past and could fill the gap during years without the Tall Ships. Councillor Noakes said she would pass the information onto MGL.

Councillor Morgan suggested a festival focussed on caravans, as this could be a revenue generator. Councillor Noakes said she would pass it onto MGL.

Councillor Ryall asked for clarification as to whom applied for grants and how the Council planned to maintain momentum with its plans. Councillor Noakes explained that the Gloucester Culture Trust (GCT) had been created and that the newly appointed director would be starting in post on the 14^th of March. She explained that the GCT would be the main applicant for future funding and grants and the new director would be the predominant writer of future applications.  She thanked Jonathan Lund for the work he had put into the Great Places Scheme bid. Jonathan Lund stated that part of Gloucester City Council’s Culture Strategy was to develop GCT and to move away from being based around the work of officers in the docks and towards the contributions of a wider range of partners and stakeholders.

Councillor Hampson asked for clarification regarding what score was deemed a good score, in the table in paragraph 3.28 of the report. Jonathan Lund stated that the scores were intended to provoke a debate about the events, rather than dictating if the event had been worthwhile. He appreciated that the monitoring required further amendments to improve its efficacy.  Councillor Hampson agreed that the monitoring system needed amending but welcomed the monitoring itself.

Councillor Haigh raised concerns that the focus for the programme appeared to be solely on the City Centre and failed to reflect the multi-cultural diversity of the City. She stated that events in other wards would also benefit from support. Councillor Noakes agreed with Councillor Haigh that events in other wards were also important and highlighted Strike-A-Light Theatre Company’s work in Matson and the upcoming Hucclecote Show. She said that due to financial constraints it was necessary to have a focussed approach but that this would widen over time.

The Committee shared different ideas for events with Councillor Noakes, including Barton Fair, Partnership with the Showman’s guild and using other city’s successful events as a template for Gloucester’s events. Councillor Noakes thanked the Committee for these and asked them to send any suggestions to Jason Smith at MGL.

The Chair thanked Councillor Noakes and Jonathan Lund for their presentation.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted