Whether you revel in the street performances or breathe a sigh of relief when the whole thing grinds to a halt, there is no denying the Brighton Festival gives value for money.

Last year England's biggest arts festival contributed £20 million to the city's economy and organisers are confident this year's event, now in full swing, will rake in even more.

The festival costs about £2.5 million to host but the artists, poets, dancers, musicians, speakers, cabaret acts and comedians generate a hefty return.

Details of exactly how much they add to the city's coffers came from the first survey into the economic impact of the annual arts event, which was carried out last year.

The report, commissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council, Arts Council England South-East and Brighton Festival Society, revealed:

For every £1 spent on tickets by festival goers, an additional £22.26 was spent on meals, drinks, hotel accommodation, shopping and taxis
900 artists exhibiting in open houses received more than £840,000 in sales
Local businesses invested £400,000 in the festival
430,000 people attended 1,200 performances, exhibitions and events in which 6,500 artists and performers took part. Sixty-nine per cent of audience members came from Brighton and Hove.

Nick Dodds, Brighton Festival Society chief executive, said: "The festival, first and foremost, is a cultural event but the economic side of it is a very important secondary consideration.

"We are part-funded by Brighton and Hove City Council and one of the ways we can justify that funding is by demonstrating a positive economic impact on the city.

"But the arts is a strange economy. We make money for the city. The £20 million figure is mainly secondary spending. It's the bars, taxis and restaurants who benefit."

Mr Dodds said local business sponsorship was vital to the success of the festival but the society's fund-raisers would be thinking beyond the city's boundaries next year.

He said: "We feel we have already done incredibly well out of businesses in Brighton. Here, we are reaching a level where all the major corporates who could support us already do so. We are now looking farther afield, to Gatwick, Crawley and London. Businesses sponsor us for different reasons but corporate hospitality is a big factor.

"The festival will continue to get bigger and bigger each year so I'm sure the amount we generate for the city will increase year on year.

"We are starting to attract more people from outside Brighton and they are the people who spend more money in terms of accommodation and food and drink."

The 2004 report gathered information from box offices and the Brighton Festival accounts and interviewed organisers of open house trails, walking tour guides and 40 local businesses and sponsors.

In its 39 years, the Brighton Festival has become the country's leading mixed arts festival.

In 2004, almost 200,000 people attended free events, including the Children's Parade, the Streets of Brighton and the Carnival Encounter.

The festival is funded through ticket sales, which this year raised almost £800,000, and a mix of sponsorship from businesses and money from Brighton and Hove City Council, Arts Council England and Visiting Arts. Last year grants totalled £1.1 million, including £400,000 from Arts Council England and £500,000 from the city council, which supported the work of more than 1,900 performers. Sponsors, including American Express, CMSA, Brighton Marina, DMH Stallard, and Bonett estate agents, gave £417,000 to the festival.

Another business which sponsors the main festival, and the fringe event which it now incorporates, is the Christopher Gull dental practice in Ship Street, Brighton.

Owner Chris Gull has turned his surgery into an open house venue for the past three years and holds small exhibitions throughout the year.

He teamed up with other small businesses in the city to sponsor the Cuban singing legend Ibrahim Ferrer.

Mr Gull said: "The sponsorship came out of my marketing budget and I thought it would associate our brand with something innovative and cultural."

He envisaged his support of the festival would be long-term.

He said: "If you place an advert you can immediately judge how successful it has been by the number of extra customers who walk through the door.

"Something like this is more ephemeral but I am convinced that, over time, by putting our name out there with such a popular event, we will see results."

The Open University, based in East Grinstead, has backed the festival for the first time this year as a means of raising its profile. It is sponsoring Brighton-based theatre company dreamthinkspeak, whose new show, Underground, premiered at the festival last week.

David Collins, head of reputation marketing, said: "Our partnership with the innovative theatre company dreamthinkspeak is one of the many ways the OU is helping people to see, experience and think about our world in new ways."

It would be easy to conclude all is well in festival land.

But there may be a dark cloud on the horizon. Legislation coming into force in November could force festival organisers to shell out a flat fee of £64,000 to stage the event.

Organisers fear dozens of shows could be cancelled if they are forced to pay flat fees to cover the cost of health and safety checks and clearing up.

Jane McMorrow, Brighton Festival's manager, told The Argus: "The implication could be that we can't run the festival any longer. If we had to bring in that level of charging, that would be it."

The fees, which are being introduced for festivals under the Licensing Act 2003, were announced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The amount festival organisers would pay would depend on how many people were expected to attend an event.

The top charge would be £64,000 for shows or festivals with more than 90,000 people.

Mrs McMorrow said: "There is a growing lobby against the fee and we will be part of that."

Under the old system, Brighton and Hove City Council's open-air public entertainment licences for more than 1,000 people cost £430.80 a day, rising £105.10 per extra 1,000 people. Licences for fewer than 1,000 people cost £210.10.

Under the new laws, regular outdoor events attracting large audiences could face bills running into thousands. But Mr Dodds, who also chairs the British Arts Council, was optimistic that would not be the case. He said: "Nationally there is some concern about the legislation but I understand the Government has built some leeway into the Act which allows local authorities to interpret it quite widely.

"Brighton and Hove City Council has reassured us that the festival will not be affected too much by the legislation and that they are right behind us on the issue."

May 24, 2005