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Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks to the local community of staging a major cultural and/or sporting event.
This
essay will
evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Glastonbury Festival to the
local
community. It will mainly focus on the
economic impact on the local community of Glastonbury
Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts was started by the owner of
Worthy
Farm, Michael Eavis, in 1970 and has continued to grow each year since
then,
with the 2000 festival attracting in excess of 150,000 people (BBC,
2002). Glastonbury Festival is now one of
the most
well known festivals in the world “…this festival is now a multi-media,
international event…” ( There is a great deal of support for Glastonbury Festival
from the
local community who benefit from it in many ways, which will be
discussed later
on in this essay. The Glastonbury
Tourist Information Centre show their support for the festival on their
website, “The town of Glastonbury Festivals Ltd. (GFL) have provided a great
deal of
information as to how the festival financially benefits the local
community. A summary of this information
will follow. In total, from January 2000
to December 2000, GFL donated £703,158.97 to various charitable
organisations
worldwide. Of the total amount,
£289,613.72 is donated to local causes.
These local causes vary from carnival clubs and schools to
various
sporting clubs, many of which rely on funding from the festival to
continue. A letter to Mendip District
Council (2002), in support of the festival, from a local child states,
“…we
could loose our carnival if he [Michael Eavis] doesn’t do this
[Glastonbury
Festival], because a lot of carnival clubs go up there to raise money
to build
their floats that cost thousands to make … and we’ve always had Pilton
Pop
Festival in the past. Three cheers to
Michael Eavis.” Herbert (2001) states
that, “in response to the questionnaire 74 percent of local residents
asked say
that the festival provides financial funding for local charities and
schools”. From the
information provided by GFL it can be seen that it is not just through
donations that the local community is benefited financially from the
festival
but also by an increase in business at the time of the festival. A total of 316 local businesses received
£3,308,625.78, from January 2000 to December 2000, by direct
spending from
GFL. This level of financial input from
GFL is much needed by local firms especially due to their rural
location. "We have a lot of support
locally. The economy relies on the festival what with the demise of the
agriculture industry. The economic case is very, very strong," said Mr
Eavis (BBC, 2002). It is more
than likely that, yet again, many of these local companies rely on the
annual
spending from GFL. However,
it is not only through direct spending from GFL that local businesses
benefit. All businesses associated with
leisure and tourism benefit from the festival, from accommodation to
shops and
pubs, the publican from the Crown in Pilton said, “It was a magnificent
boost
to trade, with nothing lost, nothing stolen and nothing broken – we
didn’t have
to close the doors to anyone” (GFL, 2002).
In the weeks prior to the festival itself, those actually
setting up the
festival site use many of these local amenities. “A
proportion of people who come to the
festival, including workers, performers and festival goers, choose not
to camp
on site and look to local hotels and bed and breakfasts for their
accommodation” (GFL, 2002). Shepton
Mallet, Local garages also benefit from the number of
cars arriving on site at the festival, “Mendip
District
Council quotes that there were a total of 57,000 cars in the official
and
unofficial car parks in 2000. Many of these vehicles would have used
local
garages for fuel, assuming each car only spent £10 this amounts to £570,000
spent on fuel” (GFL, 2002). At the 2000 festival GFL directly employed 1600 people, twenty five percent of whom were employed from the local area. “Over £347,175 was spent on local employment, this amounted to over 55% of the total monies spent on wages for the 2000 festival” (GFL, 2002). Local business also benefited by having stalls at the 2000 festival, of the 770 stalls at the festival fifteen percent were local businesses. GFL (2002) states that, “It is our policy to try to accommodate local traders in preference to those coming from further a field.” It is clear to see from the information provided by GFL that they make a considerable effort to involve the local community as much as possible in the festival and a large proportion of the direct spending and donations from the profits go directly to the local community. Glastonbury
Festival is a cultural event it can therefore be said that it can help
to
promote cultural tourism within the local community.
Cultural tourism is defined by The World
Tourism Organisation (1985, p6, cited in Hall, 1992 pp 23) as
“movements of
persons for essentially cultural motivations such as study tours,
performing
arts and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other cultural events,
visits
to sites and monuments, travel to study nature, folklore or art and
pilgrimages”. As the Festival is such a
well-known event it probably promotes tourism even when the festival is
not
actually on. Those who have heard of the
festival may want to visit It
is obvious that
this huge festival will have some kind of negative impact, both
economically
and socially, to the local area. The
main economic drawback of the festival is the cost to the local
community of
dealing with crime and other associated problems actually outside the
festival
site and the pressure put on local services such as hospitals and the
police. This is confirmed by Mendip
District Council (2002) “The
Glastonbury Festival attracts more than 100,000 people every year.
It doubles the population of Mendip district and severely stretches the
capacity of local services, such as the police, fire and hospitals”. At the 2000 festival a total of 3237 patients
were dealt with, 127 of which were referred to local hospitals and the
helicopter was used twice (Festival Medical Services, 2000). The festival costs the NHS £40,000 plus
many
empty beds in case of emergencies (Mendip District Council, 2002). The A report from One of the many reports submitted to the licensing board, from Mendip District Council (2002), highlights some of the detrimental effects to the environment caused by the festival. The wildlife, where it still exists, does a general exodus. The festival creates a million gallons of raw sewage, which helps to pollute the River Whitelake. 60,000 cars and coaches come into the district, which with the numerous fires and smoke machines etc help to create a haze like an industrial smog over Pilton. The festival creates 1000 tons of rubbish, very little of which is recycled. From the information that has been examined for this essay, it is rather difficult to determine overall whether the positive impacts of the festival outweigh the drawbacks. It also depends on whom you speak to in the local community with regards to how they feel about the festival. Mendip District Council receive many letters and phone calls from local residents some showing support for the festival and other from residents who are wholly opposed to it. It is clear that GFL make a great deal of effort to donate to local charities and to support local businesses, but it seems that not enough is being done to combat the detrimental effects caused by the festival. As stated by Herbert (2001) in her conclusion, “in general, more members of the host community agreed that the festival brings more disadvantages to the community than benefits, although this could be improved with the community having greater involvement in the planning and management of the Glastonbury Festival”. The 2001 festival did not go ahead as it was felt by the licensing board and the police that it would not be safe and following the 2000 festival the festival organisers were fined £6,000 for breaches of the licence conditions (Mendip District Council, 2002). This has meant that the conditions of the licence for the 2002 Glastonbury Festival are much more stringent, with the festival organisers this year stating “No Ticket, No Festival” (GFL, 2002). The festival organisers are combating the huge problem of the number of people turning up without tickets, which appear to be those who cause the most problems in the local area. There will be stricter controls with regards to stopping those with no ticket getting anywhere near the festival. Off site car parks are proposed with buses running to the festival site for only those with a ticket (GFL, 2002), however, it will not be clear until the festival actually happens as to whether this will be effective, it may just cause more problems within the local area. It is clear from the research undertaken that
a great deal of effort has been put into trying to ensure that the
problems
caused by previous festivals are not repeated.
An organisation called Mean Fiddler have taken over the
running of the
festival, they have experience of managing other large-scale cultural
events
such as the Reading Festival and Homelands (www.meanfiddler.com, 2002). Hopefully this will help to make Glastonbury
2002 safe and fun and a great deal more pleasant for the local
community. If the conditions of the
licence are breached
this year it is almost certain that Glastonbury Festival will not be
allowed to
continue, it is therefore up to all of those involved and all of those
who
support the festival to make sure that it is successful. ReferencesBBC
(2002). Commercial
Manager (2001). The Festival Medical Services
(2002). Reports to the Regulatory
Board for the application for a Publics Entertainment Licence for Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Accommodation over the
festival period. Festival Office,
Pilton. Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Employment 2000. Festival Office, Pilton. Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Local Garages/shops/pubs. Festival Office, Pilton. Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Market Traders 2000. Festival Office, Pilton. Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Monies spent with local
business’
by Glastonbury Festivals LTD Jan 2000 - Dec 2000.
Festival Office, Pilton. Glastonbury Festivals Limited
(2002). Monies to charities and other
Organisations from Glastonbury Festivals LTD Jan 2000 - Dec 2000. Festival Office, Pilton. Hall,
C.M. (1992). Hallmark Tourist Events:
Impacts, Management and Planning.
Belhaven Press, Herbert, R. (2001). An
investigation into community
participation in the planning and management of the Mean Fiddler (2002). About Us. [online] available from: http://www.meanfiddler.com
[22.04.02]. Mendip District Council
(2002). Reports to the Regulatory
Board for the application for a Publics Entertainment Licence for Murphy, P.E. (1985). Tourism:
A Community Approach. Routledge, Somerset Fire Brigade
(2000). Reports to the Regulatory
Board for the application for a Publics Entertainment Licence for Wall, G and Mitchell, C.
(1989).
“Cultural festivals as economic stimuli and catalysts of
functional change”,
p132-41 in G.L. Syme, B.J. Shaw, D.M. Fenton, W.S. Mueller, eds, The
Planning and Evaluation of Hallmark Events.
Avebury, Waters, Wilson, J. and Udall, L.
(1982). Folk Festivals: A handbook for
organisation and management. World Tourism Organisation
(1985). The states role in protecting
and promoting culture as a factor of tourism development and the proper
use and
exploitation of the national cultural heritage of sites and monuments
for
tourism. World Tourism Organisation,
Bibliography Goldblatt, J.J. (1997). Special Events: Best Practices in Modern
Event Management. Wiley, Torkildsen, G. (1999). Leisure and Recreation Management. Spon Press, Watt, D.C. (1998). Event Management in Leisure and Tourism.
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