Lambeth Country Show 2020 – Virtual Event Post Event Report Enquiries: Tim Fanucci | tfanucci@.gov.uk | 020 7926 7102

1. Introduction The decision to cancel this 'year's Lambeth Country Show was made public by the Council on Friday 27 March to support the efforts to contain the Coronavirus (COVID- 19) outbreak. It was following a Cancellation Decision briefing that was circulated to senior management on Friday 20 March that assessed all reputational and financial risks and impacts associated with the cancellation. Several costs could not be avoided due to the project commencing in November 2019. These are outlined in the financial assessment below and include charges such as consultation fees for site production management, concession management, artist cancellation fees, various software licenses and design work carried out before cancellation. The full cost of producing the virtual event is also outlined below that includes software licenses and other small communications costs. 2. Financial Assessment

As part of the proposals set out and presented to Councillor. Sonia Winifred and senior management, the Event Productions team were confident that they could deliver a diverse programme of activities on a limited budget. The total associated costs for producing the virtual event was £1,637.57.

2.1 Table 1 – Virtual LCS Budget Summary Entertainment Programming Lambeth Horticultural Society: £200.00 Flower Show scheduling and judging Rosettes for Flower Show winners £34.88 High Street Vouchers for competition £100.00 winners Software Licensing Restream subscription: £271.66 Multistreaming functionality and video scheduling Communications Online Flower Show Schedule design £50.00 Postage of rosettes and vouchers £31.03 Online promotional design assets £950.00 (*Lambeth internal recharge) Total £1,637.57

The LCS 2020 project commenced in November 2019, so when the decision was made to cancel the event in late March there was already a substantial amount of work carried out along with associated spend on consultancy and planning.

2.2 Table 2 – LCS 2020 Overall Budget Summary

Category Actual Forecast Income £0.00 £406,850.00 Virtual LCS Costs (Table 1) £1,637.57 £0.00 Staffing and Consultancy (Site Production Management, £49,625.00 £511,700.00 Concession Management, Medical Consultancy) Entertainment Programming (Cancellation Fees*) £2,076.25 £78,125.00 Production Equipment £0.00 £99,400.00 Infrastructure £0.00 £167,500.00 Sanitary, Waste and Water £0.00 £102,300.00 Communications and Licenses (Applications, Accreditation, Design) £3,968.34 £60,035.00 Total £55,669.59 £639,160.00

*In order to confirm certain Main Arena entertainment, we must enter into contracts before the New Year to secure the bookings. Some of the contracts come with a 20% cancellation fee that had to be paid in this instance. In return for these fees this year, we requested each cancelled act submit unique content for the virtual event such as tours of stables, falconry exhibits and sheep shearing.

3. Overview of the virtual event Councillor Sonia Winifred agreed a decision to produce a virtual version of the eventthe week after cancellation, as it was felt we should still aim to keep the Country Show spirit alive whilst not knowing how long the government lockdown would last. The best way to produce the event was to split the content into the various zones that are present at the show each year:  Activate and Active Travel  Arts & Culture  Charities and Community Groups  Demonstration Village  Discovery  Eco Village  The Farm  Flower Show  Literature Village  Main Arena  Main Stage  Village Green Each one of these zones hosted links to interactive shows, live streams or pre- recorded content. The productions team used Restream, a multistreaming service, to broadcast content and videos across the 'show's various social media channels simultaneously. The 'show's Facebook, YouTube and Twitter channels were all utilised. As part of the build up to the event, a Virtual Market was also put together to support local businesses and traders/exhibitors who would have otherwise attended the live show. Businesses were invited to submit their details along with online offers and links. The market was split into the following categories:  Charities and Community Groups  Drinks  General Foods  Health and Wellbeing  Horticulturists  Retail  Street Food

4. Virtual content and programming As well as each show zone being represented as its own part of the virtual event, we invited several Lambeth services and other external organisations to host their own zones/pages too:  Lambeth Public Health  Lambeth Archives  Lambeth Libraries  Lambeth Links (LGBT+ Forum)  Lambeth Made (Young 'People's Zone)  Lambeth Recycles / Veolia Lambeth  Healthwatch Lambeth / Before I Die… / The Advanced Care Consortium  Immersive Experiences (Astronomy, Science and Space) We also delivered six successful competitions online:  Lambeth Flower Show – Virtual Edition  Vegetable Sculpture Competition  Scarecrow Competition  Recycled Garden Competition  Best in Show Competition  Lockdown Dog Competition

Several organisations also contributed unique content in-kind to the event to help support the show and assist us in producing a programme at minimal cost. In return it was also a platform the promote the organisations and their objectives. Lambeth External Activate / Active Travel Carers 4 Carers (Fitness Classes) Little Giants Volleyball Club Cycle Confident Lambeth Sustainable Travel Arts & Culture Village The Chocolate Museum Aim High Dance Academy Joy of Sound The Rig: Musical Exploration Kids Kreate The Ukulele Choir Omnibus Theatre Charities and Community Groups Alzheimer’s Society Age Axchange Black Thrive Brook The Society Business Launchpad Carers Hub Lambeth Compliments of the House Connect Lambeth Insight Into Islam Own History – Tracing Windrush Roots Demonstration Village Network Norwood (Norwood Forum) Original Flava Cooking Demonstration A History of Coracles Discovery Institute of Imagination Royal Society of Biology Brixton Windmill Royal Society for Immunology TEDx Lambeth Institute of Physics Chucklehead Cider Eco Village Bee Urban Every Can Counts Community Greenhouses London Beekeepers’ Association Bandstand Beds OLIO Friends of Brockwell Park Red Line Action Trees For Cities The Farm City Farm The Sheep Show CJ’s Birds of Prey Flower Show Lambeth Horticultural Society Royal Horticultural Society Literature Village Brixton BookJam The Arts Society Poetic Unity

Main Arena Paws & Pause CJ’s Birds of Prey The Cavalry of Heroes Dog and Duck Show Main Stage Youthsayers Earl Sixteen The Uppercut Band Village Green Oxjam Brixton The Noteables Choir Brasstermind Samba Grooveschool Lambeth Wind Orchestra Real Voices Choir

Other virtual content to note that was available:  Main Stage playlist and radio – available on Spotify and Amazon Music o Saturday: Pop, Funk, Disco, Soul o Sunday: Reggae, Dub, Ska, Lovers Rock  Public Health Lambeth page – Keeping Lambeth Safe  Lambeth Made Young People's Zone o Young people's guide to Coronavirus o Young people's guide to summer activities o Lambeth Sounds Music Hub o School Ground Sounds o 'Tomorrow's Warriors o SWeet Recorders o Kinetika Bloco o London Music Masters  Lambeth Libraries and Lambeth Archives o Wriggle & Rhyme specials for under 5's o Garden Storytimes o Summer Reading Challenge Kids Quiz o Code Club Tasters for ages 9-13 o Literary Lockdown Quiz for all ages  Lambeth Recycles o How to make a cushion cover from old fabric o How to use reusable nappies o How to make a newspaper food caddy liner

5. Analytics LCS Website The show website received a total of 8,285 page views from 1,492 users in total over the weekend.

Comparative data for live 2019 event and weekend before the 2020 virtual event Date / Event Page views Users 20 – 21 July 2019 (Live event) 130,103 27,208 11 – 12 July 2020 1,050 247 18 – 19 July 2020 (Virtual event) 8,285 1,492 25 – 26 July 2020 585 123

130,103 140,000

120,000

100,000

80,000

60,000 27,208 40,000 8,285 20,000 1,492

0 Page views Users 20 – 21 July 2019 (Live event) 11 – 12 July 2020 18 – 19 July 2020 (Virtual event) 25 – 26 July 2020

An overview comparing website stats between the virtual event and the weekend before:

An overview comparing website stats between the virtual event the 2019 event:

YouTube People watched our videos on YouTube 2,064 times in total with a combined watch time of 98.6 hours.

Facebook

Twitter

6. Press and Media The Lambeth Communications team pulled together a press and media coverage report 'that's available in Appendix 1. An overview of coverage is outlined as follows: National BBC One / Sidney Street Productions: Farmers’ Country Showdown The Guardian The Telegraph Metro Local / Regional Time Out London South London Press South London News Brixton Buzz Brixton Blog News From Crystal Palace London Borough of Lambeth coverage Lambeth Council website Lambeth Country Show website EventLambeth website Love Lambeth website Non-traditional media (Blogs, stakeholders etc.) Norwood Forum News More Than Weeds Lambeth Horticultural Society Royal Society of Biology Institute of Physics Brixton Society Brixton Windmill Tree Shepherd Head Topics