Big Weekend generated almost £7million in "economic impact" for Luton says council

Conservative Poets councillor Aslam Khan inquired about the cost of staging the Big Weekend at Stockwood Park to the borough council and whether it was value for money.

Labour High Town councillor James Taylor replied at a full council meeting: “The executive approved a sum of £350,000 that was UK shared prosperity fund (UKSPF) grant finance, for which we received government approval to allocate for this venture.

“Luton Rising provided sponsorship of £150,000 and there’s been no impact on the (council’s) general fund. We welcomed more than 105,000 people over three days and the event put the town in a global spotlight.

“The BBC stated it was their most remarkable event on record out of the 21 they hosted previously, and reported 100m views on its social media forums.

“The festival generated 5.7m streaming requests on iPlayer and BBC Sounds, with a significant uplift in Luton and the surrounding areas, while TV content reached more than 3m viewers.

“Our own social media platform hit more than 1m views across the board, and we were inundated with hundreds of positive comments across the social media for the council, Luton Rising and Step Forward Luton. For our money, we could never have dreamed of achieving such reach.

“We’ve just received some of the economic impact headlines, with an estimate the event generated more than £6.7m of impact, including local spend, which was more than ten times our input.

“There’s been huge interest from businesses and the community to host large music events in the future,” he explained.

“Once we’ve received the full economic impact report back, we’ll start to explore the opportunities with commercial and event organisers, as we want any event delivered at no cost to the local taxpayer.

“Throughout the whole weekend, just eight noise complaints were received and there were only 13 arrests. For an event of this scale, that’s absolutely incredible.

“The Big Weekend was a tremendous economic, cultural and community event, which came at no cost to the Luton taxpayer, so value for money was achieved.”

Councillor Khan wondered how much of that money would go to people who need it the most in the town, and how the Luton pound was spent in Luton and kept in the town.

Portfolio holder for regeneration and inclusive growth councillor Taylor said: “None of this money was taken from elsewhere to fund this event.

“Of the economic impact of over £6m, about £5.1m came from outside the town with an extra £1.6m spend from people living within Luton.

“There was also a huge uptake in hotel trade. The figures speak for themselves … £500,000 of funding, £6.7m of economic impact.”

Councillor Khan suggested the BBC and Thameslink were the financial beneficiaries, saying: “There were no businesses from the poor areas (of Luton).”

Councillor Taylor added: “The BBC and Festival Republic are in charge of that and encourage local businesses to tender. I certainly saw a couple within there.”