The Search for Dumfries & Galloway’s New Beacon Events Begins!
William McIlvanney at the Book town festival
Dumfries & Galloway Council, with the support of its community planning partners represented on the Events Partnership, has started the search for the region’s next Beacon Events.
The Beacon Events policy, believed to be unique within Scotland, aims to support the development of between 6 to 8 events in the region to national/international quality by the end of 2008. The means of doing so is to assist the growth of high-performing events via a rolling programme of investment.
The Wickerman Festival, the Scottish Book Town Festival and the GaelForce Arts Season are the region’s current Beacon events. Their specialist package of funding support will conclude in 2007.
The existing Beacon events are serving Dumfries & Galloway well. The Wickerman Festival was responsible for creating an additional economic impact of £1.75million for the region in 2006. During the three days of the event, the Festival site becomes the second largest population settlement in Dumfries and Galloway – nearly 16,000 people were on site this year.
The Book Town Festival continues to go from strength to strength and recorded that ticket sales were up by 30% in 2006 over the 2005 figure. The Festival was directly responsible for additional visitor spend in the region of £167,000.
The much-loved GaelForce Arts Season was an outstanding success in 2006. The Box Office takings of events within the programme rose from £148,142 in 2005 to £182,667 this year. Visitor feedback on the new website and brochure has been positive, and GaelForce continues to be a terrific means of profiling Dumfries & Galloway’s exceptionally strong portfolio of festivals and events in the Autumn.
The Council’s Festivals and Major Events Strategy identifies the importance of events to economic growth and the social, cultural and sporting life of the region. The Strategy asserts that Dumfries & Galloway has a competitive advantage in tourism over other parts of Scotland as a result of the vibrant calendar of events that take place here and that the Beacon Events policy can maintain and extend this sustainable competitive advantage.
Events that have taken place in the region since 2004 and have a turnover of £60,000 or more are eligible to apply to the Council to become the region’s next Beacon events. Successful applicants will receive specialist funding and advice to take forward their events growth.
For further information contact: Ian Barr, Planning and Environment, E-Mail: Ianba@dumgal.gov.uk
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