ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PLANNING, TOURISM, AND LEISURE
SERVICES SELECT COMMITTEE – 28 JULY 2003
REPORT
INTO THE 2003 ISLE OF WIGHT MUSIC FESTIVAL
REPORT OF THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF WIGHT LEISURE
REASON FOR SELECT COMMITTEE
CONSIDERATION
To provide
members with a review of the 2003 Isle of Wight Festival.
ACTION REQUIRED BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE
For
noting.
BACKGROUND
The Isle of Wight Council staged a two-week
music festival between 7 – 22 June 2003 that was managed and delivered by Wight
Leisure with key partners and festival supporters. The two-week programme was a
diverse range of music comprising of rock, jazz, dance, world, youth, roots,
blues, easy listening and more. The festival included the two-day Isle of Wight
Rock Festival, managed and delivered by The Solo Agency.
The
continuing aims of the festival are to:
· Develop and build the largest music festival in the UK.
·
Put the Isle
of Wight on the map as a world-class music venue.
·
Promote
tourism, economic, leisure and cultural development.
·
Support
community regeneration and social inclusion.
·
Encouraging
job creation and economic prosperity.
The
objectives of the festival are to:
·
Encompass the
widest range of music in as many venues as possible during the two-week
festival programme and package, brand and promote as one complete attraction,
whilst maintaining quality.
·
Bring maximum
exposure to the festival via a high profile Rock Festival with world famous
musicians and bands.
·
Keep the
festival in the spotlight with a range of specialist interest themed
performances throughout the two-week period.
·
Stage a Youth
Music festival and educational programme.
·
Encourage
Island-wide participation and use the festival to showcase local talent.
·
Achieve
Island-wide participation in the programme from a maximum number of venues.
·
Raise the
profile of music in particular and, more generally, the arts and promote better
access to a wide range of high quality arts work through the varied programme.
·
Build a sense
of community achievement through active involvement in creating and developing
the UK’s largest music festival.
·
Work with
external partners to achieve the festival aims.
RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES,
STRATEGIES AND PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
The
management and delivery (together with key partners) of the Isle of Wight
Festival is contained within the Wight Leisure Service Plan and, subsequently,
within the Education and Community Development Service Plan. The support of
events is written into the Isle of Wight Council’s Corporate Plan and
contributes to the Isle of Wight Council meeting three out of the six specific
corporate objectives:
FESTIVAL OVERVIEW
The 2003 Isle of Wight Festival has very largely been hailed as a success with many positive responses having been received verbally by Wight Leisure staff. Wight Leisure has received, more formally, 19 positive and 11 negative letters, e-mails and telephone calls from members of the public. With an event of this scale, that has a total audience of over 57,000 people and within a culture that is increasingly blame driven, these figures are exceptionally healthy. Some of the points from the public are below:
Examples of Positive
Comments
“Vaguely Sunny (an IW
Promotions Company) would like to congratulate you and all at Wight Leisure for
a first class festival this year. The two days at Seaclose were wonderful, and
I also enjoyed a lot of the ‘fringe events’ such as Kelly Joe Phelps, Paul
Armfield at The Bargeman’s, and Philip Norman at Ryde”
“I am writing with reference
to this year’s festival and to let you know how much I enjoyed the event. It
was good to see the Island hosting such a major event”
“Having attended the above
event (the Rock Festival) may I start by saying what a wonderful 2-day Festival
it was – total praise being due”
“Last weekend was superb.
Loved every minute of the weekend, thanks so much for giving us back our
festival !”
“Many congratulations on organising a fantastic festival”
Other positive comments received were in support of the Rock Festival, its atmosphere compared to other festivals and the positive effect on the Island.
Examples of Negative
Comments
“Why were the food and drinks
expensive on the site (the Rock Festival)”
“Campers were cutting through
our land”
“I think this concert is a
long time coming and is brilliant for the Island, but it shouldn’t be held in a
built-up area.”
“I must express my anger at the way I, and many other people, were treated by the gate security on my way to the Rock Festival on Sunday”.
Other negative comments were largely due to noise of people, fireworks and the music. Wight Leisure has replied to all complaints made to them and if necessary passed them on to other organisers/agencies where appropriate for them also to respond. Wight Leisure will work with the relevant bodies to reduce unnecessary disruption in future years.
STATISTICS AND FEEDBACK FROM THE VENUES AND PROMOTERS
Wight Leisure has collated information from all the venues, promoters, artists, organisers and others who took part in the staging of the festival and the results are below. As there were many free and non-ticketed events within the festival, it is difficult to present an exact record of how many attended the festival overall, whether they were Island residents or not, age ranges etc. The figures presented have been compiled from data received and represent the views of the venues etc. and not those of Wight Leisure themselves:
Ø
208
events across the
Island took place within the two-week festival.
Ø
There
were 331 performances ranging from solo artists to eleven piece bands.
Ø
Total
audience is estimated at approximately 57,500 people for the two weeks.
Ø
The
Rock Festival had an audience of 28,000 over the two days.
Ø
The
estimated split of audience across the age ranges was:
Age Range %
of Audience Audience Number
20 and under 21.7% 12496
21 – 40 54.9% 31511
41+ 23.4% 13468
Ø
The
estimated audience split between mainland visitors to the festival and the
Island based festival audience is:
Residency % Split Audience Number
Island Based 60 % 34457
Mainland Based 40 % 23018
Ø
Using
the accepted formula of the Southern Tourist Board that is supported by the
South East England Cultural Consortium and the South East England Development
Agency, the two-week Isle of Wight Festival generated a spend into the
Island’s economy of over £3,150,000.
Ø
55,000
free festival brochures were produced to support the festival of which 43,000 were
distributed through The County Press. Others were distributed on and off Island
through the venues, TIC’s, ferry ports and other outlets.
Ø
Venues
/ promoters rated their event(s) as:
Very Successful 67%
Successful 27%
Average 6%
None rated their event(s) as ‘Poor’.
Ø
The
value of the press and website coverage for the Isle of Wight Festival is
approximately £425,000.
Ø
In
addition to the above the Isle of Wight Festival was substantially covered in
the broadcast media
including: BBC One, Meridian TV, Liquid News, Sky News, Solent TV, BBC Radio
One, BBC Radio Two, Virgin Radio, Xfm, Wave 105, Solent Radio, Power FM, Isle
of Wight Radio and others. As the resources have not been available to maintain
a detailed record of broadcast media it has not been possible to give an
accurate value to this media coverage, therefore a figure has not been
presented in this report.
The successful management, delivery and staging of the Isle of Wight Festival would not be possible without the commitment, support and enthusiasm of key partners, sponsors, agencies, organizations, businesses, venues, performers, artists, and residents.
“Needs more advertising for older people”
Comments and
Statistics
“There were two noise complaints on the Saturday, from East
Cowes and Northwood, and Sunday there were another two, from the Fairlee Road
area of Newport. From a licensing point of view, the festival was very
successful. We are, however, working in partnership with the promoter to ensure
a safe and trouble free venue, seeking improvement in all areas as the festival
develops”
John Murphy
Senior Licensing Officer
Isle of Wight Council
Over the weekend, medical staff saw 146 festival-goers
overall:
62 were seen by ambulance staff
7 transferred to hospital
2 admitted to hospital (with medical conditions not related to
the festival)
50 First Aid applications were administered e.g. plasters,
blister advice etc.
“It was a success from our point of view – there were no significant injuries at all…..I would encourage a similar set up for future events”.
Dr Robin Beal
Consultant in Emergency
Medicine
St Mary’s Hospital
“The licensee / event organiser complied with the relevant
chapters and sections of the ‘Event Safety Guide’ (HSG 195). Liaison with the
Event Safety Manager (Alan Law) proved to be invaluable to both parties”
Alec Southcott
Senior Fire Safety
Officer
Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue
Over the weekend there were 11 arrests connected to the
festival:
1 for theft (from tents at the campsite)
7 for minor drug related incidences (all were issued with
street cautions only)
2 for intent to supply drugs
1 for indecent assault
“Despite the mixture of heat and alcohol, Island police were pleased that there was a relaxed and good humoured atmosphere throughout the event”
Paul Saville
Acting Inspector
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police
“No problems that we knew about……nothing that is a
worry”.
PC Tony Gibson
Traffic Department
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police
The IWYT supplied site welfare to the festival and over the
weekend:
9 lost children were re-united with their parents / carers
24 lost persons contacted
37 items of lost property handed-in (many now recovered)
1050 enquiries
“Great event for the Island and a new way of working for the Isle of Wight Youth Trust…..Organisationally superb from beginning to end. Well done Wight Leisure, we look forward to working with you in 2004”
Eileen Monks
Director
Isle of Wight Youth Trust
“There were no real problems (on the roads) that
resulted from the event. There are certain areas that need refining, but
overall it was a fair improvement from last year”
Mark Williams
Street Works Co-ordinator
Highways Department, IWC
Ann Kingswell
Car Parks Manager
Car Parks Dept, IWC
“From the planning services viewpoint I was perfectly
comfortable with the arrangements you secured for us………We had a handful of customers
who commented on the disruption. However, they recognised the exceptional
circumstances that existed….no complaints were received”.
Andrew Ashcroft
Planning Section, IWC
“There were no real issues regarding the festival,
other than car parking ones which we remedied”.
Sue Barton
Managing Director
The Orchard Hospital
Alan Horwell
Chief Executive
Earl Mountbatten Hospice
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank you
for the state in which the High School site and Arboretum were left following
the festival last weekend……….I look forward to (the) festival growing in size
and importance over the next few years”.
Richard Williams
Head Teacher
Negative Comments
As stated earlier in this report, there were eleven negative comments made to Wight Leisure from members of the public regarding the Rock Festival, largely in relation to:
· Noise
· Entry policy at the festival
· Car parking along Fairlee Road
These negative comments are
largely out of the responsibility areas of the Isle of Wight Council but all
have, of course, been replied to and will be passed over to the relevant body
so to improve the situation for next year.
YOUTH FESTIVAL
The two-week Youth Festival gave the
opportunity to many young musicians from the Island to perform in front of a
live audience, meet with more established artists and gain feedback from music
industry professionals.
Arranged in partnership with Platform One and
entittled ‘Wight Noize’, the
youth festival was aimed at supporting young bands and artists resident on the
Island. The two-week Wight Noize
festival hosted a series of live showcase gigs as well as master classes,
workshops, DJ Sessions, a schools tour, recording sessions and advice sessions.
The programme included:
The website address for the Isle of Wight
Festival is www.isleofwightfestival.com.
It is still running and has been since the start of April. There was a link on
the site to www.iwight.com where visitors
could purchase tickets for the Rock Festival.
The site contains:
·
Homepage
·
News
·
History
·
What’s
On
·
Two-Week
Festival Programme
·
Isle
of Wight Rock Festival information
·
Roots
Festival Links
·
Youth
Festival information
·
Tickets
·
Getting
There
·
Other
Links
The figures below for the traffic onto the website covers the approximate three month period from 1st April – 2nd July 2003:
Overall Sessions: 55,257
Daily Average: 601
Highest Daily Figure: 1,786
Lowest Daily Figure: 269
Hits (the amount of pages looked at on the site)
Overall Hits: 1,884,520
Daily Average: 20,484
Highest Daily Figure: 72,442
Lowest Daily Figure: 2,195
These figures show that there is a great deal of interest in the festival and it should be assumed that approximately 50% of these sessions / hits are from those resident off-Island and 50% are from on-Island (as most visitors were seeking information on the Rock Festival).
BROCHURES
AND PRESS
A free festival brochure was produced and
circulated to complement the festival. It contained full listings of events,
articles, advertisements, factual information e.g. travel and other features.
55,000 brochures were produced, of which 43,000 copies were distributed via the
30 May 2003 edition of The County Press. There were also advertisements and
‘advertorials’ placed within The County Press and a radio campaign on Isle of
Wight Radio to promote the festival.
The festival was covered by the local, regional
and national press and a press log containing newspaper clippings, website
pages, radio articles and other evidence of media coverage is available to
members upon request.
The value of the press and website coverage for the Isle of Wight Festival is approximately £425,000.
As committee members will be aware, the funding
regime for the 2003 festival was very different from that of the previous year
and a set budget of £25,000 was set to support the music festival as a
strategic event within the Council’s annual events programme. This figure
included officer staffing costs, rock festival support in terms of officer
time, web site design costs, brochure production costs, contributions towards
staging the roots, world and youth mini-festivals and other associated costs.
The event was delivered within budget and a breakdown of costs is available to
members upon request.
The Rock Festival was delivered in by The Solo
Agency under the contractual agreement between Solo and the IWC. Wight Leisure provided infrastructure
support, managed local liaison with agencies and organizations and local
marketing & promotion and ticket sales.
Revenue to the Council was generated through a base payment and % of
ticket sales. The table below details the income to the Council from Solo in
respect to the 2003 Rock Festival.
|
5% commission on all Rock Festival tickets
sold by Wight Leisure as agents |
£10,395.19 |
|
1% of all tickets sold for the Rock Festival
as per contractual arrangement |
£4,063.61 |
|
Contractual base payment |
£20,000 |
|
Total Amount Paid to IWC from Solo |
£34,458.80 |
DATES
FOR NEXT YEAR
The dates for next year’s festival have been
set for 4 – 19 June 2004
The Rock Festival is currently planned as a
three day event over the evening of the 11 June 2004 and the day / evening of
12 and 13 June 2004, although these have to be formally requested and approved
as per the contract terms and conditions.
FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND
DISORDER IMPLICATIONS
As The Solo Agency were the promoters of the Isle of Wight Rock Festival and had all the financial risk associated with it, there was minimal financial risk resting with the Isle of Wight Council. All other costs for the two-week festival were met from existing budgets and further income generation through advertising and sponsorship.
For the 2003 Rock Festival Solo have met all obligations under the terms and conditions of the contract agreed with the Council and previously reported to Members. The terms and conditions of this contract also apply to future Rock Festivals.
APPENDICES ATTACHED
None
BACKGROUND PAPERS USED IN
THE PREPARATION OF THIS REPORT
None
Contact Point:
Annie Horne
Managing Director of Wight Leisure
( 823350 c[email protected]
ANNIE HORNE
Managing Director of Wight Leisure