Festival set to bring business benefits

THE organisers behind Hull’s Freedom Festival are confident this year’s extravaganza can create effective partnerships with local businesses and help boost the city’s economy.

As Hull continues to celebrate making the shortlist for the 2017 UK City of Culture, organisers of the annual cultural event are preparing to provide an impressive cultural showcase.

According to the Freedom Festival board, more than 620,000 people have attended Freedom events since 2008. This has contributed £9.2m to the local economy. Last year, more than 75,000 people attended, generating around £2.6m additional expenditure in Hull.

Now in its sixth year, festival organisers Walk the Plank and the newly-established Freedom Festival board are helping cement Freedom’s position on the UK festival landscape, and hope to build on previous years’ festivals in encouraging new visitors to the city this September.

Rick Welton, a member of the Freedom Festival board, said: “This year it is doubly important we have a great festival because of the City of Culture bid. A great festival will make the bid that much stronger. All the businesses in Hull will benefit if the city is names the City of Culture.

“The Freedom Festival will help businesses with extra visitors coming into the city. But the biggest change we need to make is the perception people from the outside of the city have. A good international festival makes the place much more attractive.

“We are hoping to build partnerships with the businesses in the city, so we can help them. It would be great to have a real partnership with businesses in the city centre.”

Freedom Festival core funders are Hull City Council and Arts Council England (ACE). ACE funds include National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding, plus funding from the Catalyst programme, which aims to encourage future philanthropic giving to Freedom Festival. Additional grants and sponsorship will be sought to support the programme from local business. So far, KC and Wykeland are on board.

Graham Chesters, chair of the Freedom Festival board said: “Hull has a wealth of ‘hidden gems’ – attractions, organisations and people who are creating and doing great things that it would seem the rest of the country doesn’t know about. We want to put Freedom, and the city of Hull, firmly on the UK’s cultural map and we’re making great strides towards that aim with this year’s programme.” 

Councillor Terry Geraghty, portfolio holder for Leisure & Culture at Hull City Council said: “There’s been a lot of talk about our potential as a city to be up there with other leading cultural centres; Freedom has always been a sterling example of how we stage fantastic events featuring world-class acts, which the entire city supports and enjoys. We’re still celebrating our shortlisting for the next UK City of Culture, and are looking forward to showing the rest of the country how we do things with Freedom again this year.”