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How important are cultural events in the local economy
Extracts from the Cumbria Tourism Strategy for the next 10 years include:-
“World class events like the Kendal Mountain Festival, Lowther Horse Trials, Words on the Water literary festival, the Lake District Summer Music festival, blues at Maryport and a celebration of the county’s maritime past at Whitehaven all play an important part in showcasing Cumbria’s historic and contemporary culture. Such events and festivals will continue to be important in attracting new visitors in future“.
“To improve Cumbria’s appeal - we need to communicate the quality and sophistication of the retail, food and beverage, cultural attractions and outdoor activities on offer in Cumbria the Lake District”
“To develop new and retain existing high value visitor markets by vigorous collaborative marketing and promotion”
I think it worth mentioning here that while these strategies are being formulated some of the more iconic cultural events are disappearing.
Fred is in its last year.
After 18 years the Appleby Jazz Festival will not happen in 2008
There are no plans for an Eden Open Studios in 2008
Whitehaven Maritime Festival wont happen again until 2010 at the earliest.
These are some of the events I know about. Is it worth posting a list of some that other members of the network are aware of.
Presented with a big enough list of disappearing cultural events it might be interesting if economic development estimated how much the loss of these events is costing tourism.
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Comments
support?
Some good points made there. In my experience the lack of appropriate support for cultural events in Cumbria is a real cause for concern. While the tourist board and the councils (district and county are all guilty) celebrate the wealth of culture and events in the county, and clearly are in the best position to identify the positive roles they play in social and economic development, they fail to deliver the kind of support these events NEED to survive and thrive.
Through FRED we have had a number of conversations with the regional development agency, and subsequent meetings with other events across the NW region. However, as their funding can only be strategic, they cannot support FRED or its development into a world-class event, as the county haven't mentioned it in their strategy, or even in passing conversation. This is despite 5 years of solid work, and constant pressure for them to get behind the project. I know we're not the only event to experience this.
The council's standard responses are either that they don't have the resources to support everything, or they pass the buck to Culture Cumbria / Cumbria Vision (sic). This is not about financial support, I understand the economics of sparse population - but a bit of moral support in the right direction cost nothing and potentially contributes 1,000's.
To the defence of Cumbria Tourism, who have supported FRED throughout (although not financially, it still counts), they are promoting all the hard work done by the individuals who get these events going and indeed show the full potential of our rich assets in this corner of the country. To be honest, it's not their role to develop the sector - their strategy just recognises the marketing potential. It's just a shame that those who have a vested interest in the consequences of a stronger cultural sector sit on their hands and do nothing to develop the product.
I guess the positive point to all this is that the world is a shrinking place and not everywhere suffers the same level of cultural neglect, and there are many parts of the UK / EU who are crying out for events of this quality. What's Cumbria's loss will inevitably be somewhere else's gain.
It's interesting that since
It's interesting that since moving out ofCumbria (to North Notts, near Sheffield), I am aware of contradictory things.
Firstly, that the Network and the Hubs provide a valuable context and framework within which contemporary artists can work. One side effect of the sparseness of population in Cumbria is that poets and painters, sculptors and dancers have to bump along together in order to make a space for art. In larger populations there tends to be a more clique based network. That is, like-minded people tend to agglomerate. This might be good for them (though I doubt it), it has less of a beneficial effect for culture as a whole.
A big problem in Cumbria is that lots of people spend a lot of time going over the same arguments about why culture is a good thing for the wider society. This can hone arguments and/or act as a kind of Natural Selection, but must be exhausting for those in the front line, who try to provide varied and original cultural events. It's possible that this is a problem in all non-metropolitan centres (I live in a semi-rural deprived district which has only fairly recently appointed its first Arts Development Officer). If councils make life hard and discouraging for those movers and shakers, they will get fed up and take their ball home, and I for one can't blame them
My Site: http://www.bryaneccleshall.co.uk
Critical Writing: http://interface.a-n.co.uk/reviewers/single/42333