THE Manchester International Festival attracted twice as many visitors as expected - but it still failed to make any money.
Now the council will have to cover a £215,000 overspend.
More than 300,000 people turned up over the course of the 18-day event and council figures show attendances `comfortably exceeded' the estimated 160,000 predicted by consultants.
The event was worth £5.7m of advertising, created 29 jobs and attracted 200 volunteers.
But despite the festival having a turnover of £8.5m, the council will still have to cover a £215,000 overspend after it failed to break even. Town hall chiefs had already pledged £2m towards the event, which will return in 2009.
That was bolstered by £750,000 from Arts Council England, £650,000 from the North West Development Agency and £3.2m from private-sector sponsors.
The festival, which ran from June 28 to July 15, featured 10 world premieres and star turns.
An evaluation report, drawn up by town hall chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein, will be considered by the council's ruling executive today.
Councillors are expected to formally congratulate festival director Alex Poots on an `outstanding' event. The report includes a series of `lessons learned'. The banners and flags advertising the festival around Manchester `did not have the same impact and originality as the artistic programme', the report concedes.
A number of complaints were logged about ticketing and the council is likely to include demands for more flexibility in bookings in the tender for the next festival. And there remains `significant potential to use the festival to position the city and its unique strength to a growing audience', the report adds.
But it concludes: "It is universally recognised that the first MIF was a huge media and critical cultural success, achieving a significant number of the council's original economic objectives."
Council leader Sir Richard Leese said: "The festival was an immense success and we are proud to support it in 2009.
"I'm sure we will continue to build on 2007 and hope to reach even more people and show the world Manchester is indeed the cultural heart of Britain."
Tweet
Festival bill up £215,000
September 12, 2007
Showing comments 1 to 11 and replies | View All
Barry C (12/09/2007 at 12:07)
marc (12/09/2007 at 14:27)
joanna kay (13/09/2007 at 14:15)
The Catcher, In The Rye (13/09/2007 at 14:35)
marc (13/09/2007 at 14:42)
The Catcher, In The Rye (13/09/2007 at 14:58)
However, as compensation for not being invited to the bash, you will be pleased to know that following the soiree, me and old girl are going to Australia for 3 weeks so my insightful and constructive comments will be missing from the site of Manchester's most prestigious organ.
If you wish to send a card, my address is:
The Birchings,
Herman Goering Way
Hanging Ditch
Killingfields
Moston
M666
marc (13/09/2007 at 15:07)
north manchester holds no fear for me i'm afraid. i work in Harpurhey as well as Longsight and i grew up in an area of Leicester called Braunstone which makes Moston look like Didsbury.
The Catcher, In The Rye (13/09/2007 at 15:28)
I may take Mrs Catcher on a long weekend to Braunstone. Stop her mitherin to move to Chadderton.
marc (13/09/2007 at 15:33)
you should definitely take Mrs Catcher to Braunstone. the Rubble Museum and the swamp are of particular interest to tourists.
Pescado (13/09/2007 at 18:29)
Have fun in Asstralia and see if you can find those parrots, I'll bet their perched poolside with one of the ozzblue chaps;)
ps.I hope you and the parrots don't pick up an ozzie accent.
PJL, Chorlton (13/09/2007 at 19:51)
For the Chief Exec to write a glowing report about the festival is a bit disingenuous given that it was his idea in the first place!
I, for one, a regular arts attender, didn't get to one show! It passed most local people by, and was invisible on the streets.
It cost a fortune to put on. Why wasn't some of the £8.5m spent on getting a brochure, (even a leaflet or two) into every Mancunians home? Also to suggest that the press coverage was worth £5.7m in advertising assumes that it was all good coverage - it wasn't. A decent multi-million pound advertising campaign would have delivered much better value for money!
One or two of the shows - Monkey in particular - was a sell out (I suspect that a a sizeable chunk of the 'visitors' and most of press coverage was about this show, how much it promoted Manchester rather than Damon Blur would be an interesting evaluation). But many of the less well promoted shows had poor audiences - why wasn't more effort put into getting local people along to them?
My view is that the MIF was mainly about big egos - Poots, Bernstein, Marketing Manchester, NWDA wallers etc etc - now they've had their moment of glory in the media perhaps we can get back to doing a bit more for the people of the city at the next MIF?