Celebrating the hyperlocal: Re-thinking the place of arts festivals

The hilltop resort of Ventnor on the Isle of Wight’s most southerly tip is transformed every summer as a ten day festival of comedy, music, film and art takes over the town, doubling its population.

Dubbed “one of the most inspirational multi-disciplinary festivals” in the country, this year it celebrated record-breaking attendances. But it’s quite possible that you’ve never heard of Ventnor Fringe.

As the British Arts Festivals Association’s (BAFA) new state of the sector report shows, arts festivals of all shapes and colours transform villages, towns and urban areas across Britain every year.

Those in our survey last year staged more than 11,000 events the length and breadth of the country. They attract a total of more than 5.5m attendances (ticketed and unticketed) to in-person events and more than 100,000 to online events.

Relatively invisible

Arts festivals are a critical part of our national arts ecology. Respondent festivals last year engaged a total of 34,000 ensembles and individual artists. They provide a vital platform and audiences for new artistic output and, last year alone, programmed 2,700 new works, commissions or premieres. Classical music makes up the most commonly programmed artform (54%) followed by poetry (48%) and folk music (45%).  

These are no mean achievements and yet, for all their combined might and rightful place within our arts infrastructure – providing opportunities for artistic development, collaboration and experimentation and supporting the development of Britain’s largely freelance creative workforce – arts festivals remain relatively invisible, for a simple reason.

Many are fundamentally hyperlocal events run by dedicated arts organisations intrinsically rooted in place – and that’s the real story told by the Festivals Forward report, produced on our behalf by BOP Consulting.

Below the radar

As the report shows, more than 40% of festival audiences live within a five-mile radius – virtually on the doorstep – and, with few exceptions, festivals themselves operate far below the national radar.

They are deeply connected to their local areas, not just through the 6,350 volunteering opportunities they provide but through the outreach that 86% of arts festivals deliver to schools and other local communities – much of it as part of year-round programmes rather than simply at festival time.

They are urban as well as local, with 61% of arts festivals taking place in urban settings rather than the village halls or marquees of rural Britain. They typically run for five days each year (most are annual) and use multiple venues – theatres, pubs and churches -to stage events in the towns and cities they call home because they lack their own permanent bases, the report shows.

Major money problems

Festivals Forward is a ‘warts and all’ report which goes beyond simple profiling of the arts festivals sector to send a warning to us all: The fact that arts festivals punch far above their weight belies a genuine, and deep, financial precarity.

The report’s phrase is “surviving, not thriving”. Public investment helps some festivals deliver their activity – equating to an average of 25% of income for those who get it – but still there are major money problems.

Most festivals’ income has stayed static or reduced since 2019 and, according to the report, many organisations are simply “hanging on”. (In 2023, festivals spent more than they made, with the average income sitting at around £225k while average expenditure was around £245k.)

There are developmental challenges as well financial struggles, with many festivals needing additional support on integration and implementation of environmental responsibility and equality, diversity and inclusion agendas.

In other words, most of our arts festivals are alive and kicking – for now – but their future is bleak unless we take radical action. As report’s authors conclude: “Without additional support and investment – both fiscally and developmentally – the sector is at risk of both the reduction and loss of many iconic festivals.”

Fundamental rethink

They make a compelling case for investing in arts festivals and say that “a properly supported festivals sector would create a wider ripple effect both into the places and the local communities that festivals serve and the artistic infrastructure that festivals underpin through commissions, artist development, touring and creative collaborations”.

At BAFA, we echo these words, and go further to call for a fundamental rethink of the role arts festivals play in today’s Britain so we can develop the kind of vision able to inspire the investment that BOP talks about.

Thriving festivals can act as advocates for their sector, supporting other festivals through best practice learning and increased visibility for the continued importance of the sector in the wider UK cultural sector and beyond.

They are powerhouses of creativity, championing a culture of innovation through the development of new work, providing artists with platforms to innovate and create through new collaborations.  However, their under-recognised superpower lies closer to home.

No change is not an option

As catalysts for imagination and local hubs of creativity, they can deliver even more to the communities in which they operate, both through the events they deliver and through the year-round outreach which so many provide.

Under a government committed to building 1.5m homes, arts festivals have a natural placemaking role to play by animating and connecting communities, new and old, and by inspiring pride and local identity because it’s what they already do.

They have potential to develop new relationships with their local authorities and contribute to agendas on everything from social prescribing to social justice to attract public funding from places where it may still be available.

As Festivals Forward shows, arts festivals are in a difficult place right now – no change is not an option. By rethinking their place in the world and building on their greatest strengths – their contribution to the wider arts ecology and their hyperlocal status – we can put them on a firmer footing and make sure they thrive, as well as survive.