UK: Following its 10th anniversary edition, Manchester’s Parklife festival has revealed it generated an estimated £13 million pounds worth of economic benefit to Greater Manchester in 2019.
A total of £2,727,286.12 was spent by the festival with companies, authorities, shops, freelancers and suppliers with a Manchester postcode. Their supply includes marketing, security, lighting, sound, Greater Manchester Police, stage managers, riggers, printers, DJ’s, live artists, staging, power, scaffolding, buses, cleansing, hardware, refrigeration, bar staff, stage crew, decor and set design.
As well as the annual two-day festival, Parklife curated Noel Gallagher and The Courteeners concerts which also took place at the festival’s home of Heaton Park in June. These three events combined delivered 230,000 music lovers to Manchester, and this audience provided an estimated economic benefit to the Greater Manchester economy of £10,350,000.00
Parklife also provides a Community Fund which is in cooperation with Manchester, Bury and Rochdale councils, and is now open to applicants. This fund is designed for the benefit of local community groups and priority is given to groups and projects that utilise parks and open spaces, although all are encouraged to apply with any ideas or requests to help improve the area they share.
This year, the fund has made more than £58,000 available for the benefit of community groups. It also supports the officially championed charity ‘Superjosh’ for brain tumour sufferers and their families, raising £26,295 in 2019 from contributions made at the festival by guest list attendees. An additional £8000 was raised through festival tickets being donated to various charities for raffles and auctions – taking the total amount raised for charitable causes from Parklife 2019 to more than £92,000.
