Written evidence submitted by Council

DCMS Festivals Inquiry - Cornwall Council Response

Cornwall has a busy and diverse festivals calendar with an estimated 250 events annually. We would like to highlight the difference between the ‘industry’ and the ‘voluntary led’ festivals and the huge cross over between them. For example, some festivals may be run by a volunteer team, but pay professional fees to artists. In Cornwall we see the value of events throughout this scale. For example, the economic contribution of community festivals that happen just for one day a year may appear relatively insignificant, however they are a part of our rich and dispersed cultural offer and distinctive cultural heritage and their worth to our communities should not be dismissed. We have gathered views from a selection of sector stakeholders in Cornwall to inform this response. Reponses to each question were varied reflecting the diversity of Cornwall’s festival sector and reflecting the range of challenges and opportunities that different events face.

1. What is the economic and cultural contribution of the UK’s festival industry?

 It’s estimated that there are over 250 festivals in Cornwall ranging from village feast days to literature festivals, Cornish culture and language, food festivals, regattas, to large commercial events such as Boardmasters and Leopallooza. This means festivals are an integral part of our cultural offer and, in many cases, our cultural identity. We are keen that our response to the Inquiry reflects the full spread of festivals activity in Cornwall. Our festivals bring a diverse range of benefits not limited to: our cultural tourism offer; community and wellbeing benefits; employment/income generation opportunities for creative organisations and freelancers; wider economic benefits to the food and drink industries; accommodation providers; transport providers and events support services such as security, health and safety etc.  Through their visitor surveys Visit Cornwall’s estimates that festivals account for 10% of tourism spend which for Cornwall would be £195M – it should be noted that this is for visitors only so the overall economic impact of the sector would be considerably larger.  When research was last undertaken each festival attendance in Cornwall was estimated to be worth £16 per head to the local economy and every attendee who stays overnight was worth £110 to the local economy. This is outside the turn-over of the festival itself. (It should be noted that this research is now several years old so we would expect these figures to have increased).  Festivals are part of Cornwall’s soft-power and international presence. For example, 60 international choirs participated in the Cornwall International Male Choral Festival which took place over 50 concerts with 30k attendees.  Response from a local community festival “As well as an official turning on of the Christmas lights it provides a community engagement project with local schools, community groups and individuals to make lanterns either on their own or in groups. The day itself has encouraged further things to happen on the same day/weekend over the years [for example projects] to make it a day of celebration and the official launch of the festive season in the town. It provides opportunity for community cohesion, creativity, employment opportunities for artists, involvement of the schools in a community event, and helps local businesses. Each year it requires a concerted fundraising effort to make it happen, and costs around £6,000 with additional funding needed for any extras.”

2. What has been the impact of cancellations on local economies and those who derive income from festivals during 2020?  To give just one example The Golowan Festival in is worth over £1m to the local economy and attracts in the region of 70,000 visitors. Each festival will have its own story to tell and there is no means of gathering a complete picture without dedicated research.  Many of our festivals in Cornwall take place within our towns and villages and therefore we should not bring to mind an empty field temporarily filled with stages and tents when picturing such festivals. They contribute to the vibrancy of our towns and high streets – it is now well recognised that we need cultural events to draw to enliven our high streets and to attract spending in local shops and hospitality. Getting to know a town / location can also encourage further visits back to that place to explore it further in the future.  The lack of festivals has directly impacted on creative freelancers who have had to look at other ways to earn. This is true across a range of artforms; visual arts, musicians, poets and performing arts etc. As well as being platforms to perform at festivals sometimes provide opportunities for the commission of new work directly from artists. Literature festivals are used as an important route to promote new publications. The impact on freelancers reaches far beyond the artistic community to the wider creative industries, sound and lighting engineers, event organisers, PR companies, printing firms and to businesses as diverse as portaloo providers, first aid and security services.  It should not be forgotten that there will be a knock-on loss of income to charitable causes beyond fundraising / income generation for the lead organisation, as many festivals are also a means of fundraising, and awareness raising, for other charities and this income will have been lost to them in 2020.  Response from a local literature festival “We were able to go digital thanks to a variety of factors, including having specific networks and contacts who were able to help us turn the festival round to a digital offer so effectively. As a result, we made the decision that despite losing our usual income of ticket and bar sales, we would still pay our artists where we could and help support the cultural sector. This means that that we have no budget for next year’s festival. Local shops and amenities have also missed out on the visitor footfall that usually comes with the physical festival.”  Cornwall does not currently have a large concert venue so if audiences wish to see big names such as Lily Allen or the Chemical Brothers or to enjoy world-class concert pianists then festivals provide an opportunity to do so.  The staycation boom in summer 2020 may have mitigated these effects for some parts of the visitor sector, but not for the festivals themselves.  Psychologically it is difficult to understand the impact, locally and nationally, of the loss of the moments of celebration, making collective memories, annual markers of time passing and rites of passage that festivals represent. 3. What are the risks to festivals taking place in 2021 and beyond, and how can these be mitigated?

 There needs to be a Government roadmap for festivals and event planning and recommencing - i.e. when X percent of the population is vaccinated and when the R number is 0.Y% etc then type a festival could take place with Covid safe procedures and protocols etc with an estimate when that would be likely so draft planning could commence. This is needed as soon as possible to facilitate the planning that is needed for 2021 events.  What seems clear is that there is an entire ecology at risk and there is not a simple, one size fits all solution. For example, a voluntary-run festival may struggle to find the volunteers it now needs – particularly as many volunteers are older people who may feel more at risk from Covid 19. Others may not wish to become involved in events that could be seen to risk spreading the virus – either as audiences or as providers. At commercial events these decisions may feel even harder to make as risk is balanced with loss of income and livelihoods.  Local literature festival: “If we are still social-distancing we will not be able to hold the festival without further funding as we depend on every ticket and bar sale to make it viable.”

4. What measures are needed for audiences to attend festivals without social distancing, and how realistic are they?

 The vaccination programme appears to be the best opportunity to allow festivals to restart in a normal manner. Whilst the debate around immunity passports continues it should be remembered that younger people, who might be the core target audience at some festivals, will be the last to be vaccinated. In this instance making immunity passports a requirement of attendance may mean alienating the core audience. The vaccination programme can be augmented with other measures such as track and trace, sanitising, anti-viral paint, regular screenings outside and inside festivals, emergency planning and thorough risk assessments. Many of these items are added costs that will either need to be passed on to ticket holders, or, in the case of community-led events may make festivals economically unviable.  Clear Government guidance that is easy to follow – along the lines of a toolkit rather than dense policy documents - would be welcomed by festival organisers and their insurers.  If testing for mass participation events is a requirement there should be a clear route to procuring tests and funding should be made available to support this for non- profit events.  Response from a local community festival: “For an organiser of events, taking responsibility for holding an event safely is huge and as soon as people get together they forget about the rules.” Some volunteer-led events may not feel willing to take this risk in 2021.  Digital fatigue amongst audiences may become an issue if events are still not able to operate in ‘real life’.  Any cancellation of events in 2021 could put the expertise and know how that it takes to stage festivals at risk of being permanently lost – a two-year gap in activity would be too much to bear even for non-profit events.

5. What has been the impact of the temporary VAT cut and Culture Recovery Fund on festivals and their supply chains, and what else can the Government do to secure their futures?

 The Culture Recovery Fund was only received by two festival organisations in Cornwall – Golowan Festival in Penzance and ILOW HQ (who are involved in a number of food festivals). We have no means of knowing whether other festival applicants were unsuccessful unless they have chosen to contact Cornwall Council directly. The Council has heard from one festival who were extremely disappointed to have had their Culture Recovery Fund application rejected. They believe that their business is now at genuine risk of closure in early 2021.  Response from a local literature festival who went digital for 2020 running many events for free: “We have no budget for next year’s festival, so the economic risk is much bigger as we have no cushion. We have to make the decision as to whether we are prepared to take the risk that the festival will be successful and that ticket sales will cover our outgoing costs. As how to mitigate against that risk – we will have to do more fundraising which means time and capacity that we don’t necessarily have.”  The cut in VAT has been an effective intervention and would boost festivals further if it was extended to end of Dec 2021  Once festivals can operate safely work may need to be done in rebuilding audience confidence, and audience numbers. This is interlinked with attracting audiences back to the arts venues in general and perhaps could be supported by a national campaign to ‘get back to culture’.

6. How has the structure of the UK festivals market evolved over recent years, and what has this meant for consumers, artists and the wider industry? What further changes might be anticipated?

 It looked like Festivals and ‘experiences’ were blooming in Cornwall in the last few years. Some festivals actively encourage off-peak tourism and unique locations. Festivals do not require permanent infrastructure in the form of large cultural venues and were therefore well-suited to Cornwall’s dispersed cultural environment.  Some festivals such as Food or festival have an open-door policy, using the facilities of the Town itself to be the infrastructure and the local businesses become the catering and service facilities, this is something that we would like to further encourage in Cornwall.  It is hard to predict the societal changes that the pandemic may bring about but these could include the following: festival audiences may place a higher value on local activities & community engagement; the staycation market could remain buoyant; audiences may have increased environmental awareness; audiences may place a higher value on the sense of hedonism and collective experience that festivals can provide; audiences may place more value on supporting local businesses through festivals and events. 7. How can festivals be supported to reduce their environmental impact and tackle the dangers of illegal drug use?

 In general festivals have been increasingly aware of their environmental impact over recent years, and we have the sense that audiences will increasingly demand this of the events that they attend. Unfortunately, there have been some examples locally of where systems to mitigate this have been unsuccessful / undermined.  Local literature festival: “We were going to have a local company advise us on sustainability and environmental impact for the first time this year – again, our contacts/networks mean we were able to get this as support in kind otherwise it costs to get this done. This would be something that festival organisers would probably not have the budget for because it may not be regarded as the most vital of services. The govt. needs to support festivals by pushing the importance of the environment and the impact that festivals have on it – education basically would be the key. “  Local community festival: “Networking between festival organisers, sharing of ideas and good practices, information about suppliers, how to do things in a more environmentally friendly way. “ [This could be provided through Cornwall Festivals Network.]  Any illegal drug use could be seen as a symptom of a wider and deeper problem in society as a whole. Many of our festivals do not consider this to be an issue for them – e.g. Winter lantern parades, literary festivals.  Drug testing facilities should be provided where necessary so that anyone with drugs can have them tested, but also be given advice on the dangers even with “clean” drugs etc.

Prepared by the Culture and Creative Partnerships team - Vicky Reece-Romain, Culture Officer, Cornwall Council

7 December 2020