Agenda item

The Principle Events Officer will be joined by the Vice Chair of Middlesbrough Mela to provide the Panel with examples of event best practice and how they contribute to wider social regeneration agendas.

The Creative Programmes Manager the Vice Chair of Mela provided the panel with a verbal report and made the following points:

·         Some of the events that were delivered, or supported, by the Council’s Events Team included the Mela, the Organge Pip Market and the Christmas events programme, Discover Middlesbrough and Local History Month.

·         The Events Team also supported external event organisers that wanted to come to Middlesbrough to deliver cultural events.

·         Some of the benefits of delivering cultural events included raising the positive profile of the Town; attracting visits to the Town Centre which increased spend in Middlesbrough’s local economy as well as helping to support the local creative economies of Middlesbrough, the Tees Valley and the North East.

·         Events also helped to promote inward investment as many investors were keen to see a thriving Town Centre with robust events programmes taking place.

·         Events provided the opportunity to provide new skills for residents, especially through engagement work.

·         Many events delivered in Middlesbrough were not one-off events with most having sub-work programmes that further enhanced community engagement. Those engagement events provided the opportunity for schools, communities and individuals to participate and by extension develop skill sets and improve their wellbeing.

·         Cultural events also had a positive impact on community cohesion.

·         The Middlesbrough Mela was supposed to celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2020, however the COVID pandemic prevented this.

·         Ordinarily the Mela received audiences of between 30,000 – 50,000 people with over 100 crew members being involved. Hold the event also led to an increase in employability for the duration of the event.

·         Events such as the Mela helped to attract investment via sponsorship and funders. 

·         As part of the Mela, there were additional events that worked with over 150 people from community groups on various commissions. These commissions worked with professional artists, musicians and choreographers over a three month period which contributed to the creative content of the Mela and for its associated, smaller events such as parades.

·         The written reports provided to the Panel about the Mela gave examples of different community groups that had engaged with the event and what such engagement looked like. Examples included the Mela Big Knit that reached over 100 people.

·         Activities associated with larger events helped combat social isolation and reach those individuals engage with events like the Mela where they had not done so before.

·         The Events Team actively worked alongside the Stronger Communities service as this helped to identify community groups that may benefit from cultural engagement. This could be communities with diverse demographics, or those that had not previously engaged with cultural events. This was especially true for those communities in the east of the Town.

·         The Events Team also worked with a number of external agencies including the Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner all of which helped to support and reinforce social and community cohesion. 

·         The Covid Pandemic had resulted in cultural events being offered in different formats, namely online. Changing to new formats had however resulted in some positive change with the Mela being awarded the best online Mela in the UK in 2020.

·         The Vice Chair of Mela advised the Panel that he had been involved in the Mela for approximately 15 years and in that time the event had grown significantly. It was pointed that whereas other Mela had been cancelled due to the Covid Pandemic, the Middlesbrough Mela had continued.

·         The nature of the Mela had transformed from being a purely multi-cultural event to something that was targeted at the entire community. 

·         The support provided to the Mela by the Council’s Events Team was instrumental to the Mela’s effective delivery.

·         It was important that the Mela continued to grow and deliver its cultural offer and that support from the Council was crucial to making this happen.

·         The Mela always received positive feedback from visitors and vendors alike.

·         There were also 400 art packs delivered to the community that were themed around the Mela, as well as online story telling.

·         There was a will to make events as accessible as possible to the wider community and means of doing this included producing literature that was available in different languages. In order to maintain physical contact with the community a book had been created that included information relating to events, which was especially important for those without or limited access to online materials.

·         It was important to the Events Team that grassroots contact with communities was maintained.

·         Moving forward there were plans to try and ensure future events Covid secure, which meant exploring if the event could be held in the same format. Alternative methods for holding events included a reduction in scale or the introduction of ticketing. It was noted that a different format for the Mela would also have an impact on how the event was funded.

·         Another best practice example of an events programme delivered by the Council were those related to Christmas. An example of this event was the Christmas lights switch-on that often saw over 10,000 people attending.

·         The Magical Middlesbrough Parade was very successful and often saw between 15,000 and 20,000 people attending.

·         The Events Team worked with a wide range of stakeholders, including those involved in the creative arts, such as costume design and dance instruction as well as other sectors such as Health and Safety to ensure event delivery was of a high quality and procedurally robust.

·         The Magical Middlesbrough Parade not only made an impact for the duration of the event, additional engagement with residents was also extremely beneficial.

·         Cultural events like Magical Middlesbrough Parade also brought wider economic benefits owing to increased footfall and increased financial activity in the Town Centre.

·         The Christmas markets were also a key feature of the Christmas events programme, which was largely delivered by an external provider with the fees generated used to invest in other events.

·         The Christmas events programme for 2020 was delivered despite Covid and had been done so following Covid safe practices.

·         Delivery of cultural events was usually achieved via external sponsorship as the Council’s core events budget was relatively small.

·         The Orange Pip Market was another example of best practice cultural event delivered by the Council. Despite not being held in 2020 due to the Covid Pandemic the event was opportunity for local trades to showcase their businesses and generate increased awareness of Middlesbrough’s cultural and economic offer.

A Member commented that he hoped the Mela, Nagar Kirtan and Cleveland Show all proceeded in 2021 should the Covid Pandemic allow. The Member also commented that Armed Forces day was an important event that also formed part of the Council’s cultural offer. The Creative Programmes Manager confirmed the Council’s Events Team continued to support Armed Forces Day, and while there was not a core budget for holding the event, there was financial support available for it. It was commented that should the National Armed Forces event be held it would be in Scarborough resulting in significant resources being sent there.

 

A Member commented that the Mela’s growth was a significant benefit to the Town and hoped to see it grow further. The Member also expressed her gratitude and praise for the Christmas Lights display in the Town, which was a collaborative effort between different service areas.

 

It was queried if the lack of a normal events programme had seen a significant financial impact on the Town. It was confirmed there would have been a wider economic impact as cultural events helped support the local economy due to increased footfall and spend in the Town Centre. An example was the Orange Pip Market in which local traders were able to sell and promote themselves, however this was not possible due to the Covid Pandemic. This was also reflected in the local creative industry.

 

However, it was confirmed that while physical meetings had not taken place, where possible events had been delivered online, such as VE Day. In order to do this, the same creative industries were employed to ensure the quality of the event remained high, despite a change in format.  Sponsorship was still secured for those events that were held online which meant financial support, although reduced, was still provided to the creative industry. 

 

It was queried if going forward events would include Covid secure practices, or similar safety measures to help alleviate any concerns the public had. It was clarified the Events Team belonged to the Local Authority Events Organisers Group that benchmarked national trends and audience attitudes in this regard. An example was cited whereby the Council was working with suppliers of an illuminated Christmas Trail that could maintain socially distanced practices and allow for the same number of attendees as before the Covid Pandemic. A further example of how cultural events could be held and ensure public safety, was to hold the Mela over a longer duration and hold more, smaller scale, events rather than one large event.

 

Socially distanced methods for holding events had already been employed by holding an outdoor theatre event during the Summer of 2020.  It was commented that this approach could be extended to other event types. There were also discussions in place about drive through events for the Mela in order to maintain social distancing.

 

It was commented that while the Covid Pandemic had been difficult for the Events Team it nevertheless illustrated that adaptability was crucial to delivering effective cultural events programmes.

 

It was queried what metrics were in place to measure the impact of events, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitatively, attendee numbers were recorded for cultural events, along with national statistics to ascertain what economic impact had been made. Collaborative working with other internal and external stakeholders was critical to understand impact including the Town Centre Team, local businesses and schools. Qualitatively, user experience surveys of individual cultural events were also carried out.

 

Collaborative working was also critical to deliver effective cultural events, with examples being national Mela partnership , Unions and private enterprise. Working together with Community Safety partners to identify groups that would engage with the Events Team meant the Events Team strived to work with all communities to ensure every need was catered for.

 

The Chair thanked the Creative Programme Manager and the Vice Chair of the Middlesbrough Mela for their attendance and recognized that the hard work carried out by the Events Team and the passion displayed in that work was evident.

 

ORDERED: That the information presented be noted.