Barnaby Festival team reveals event figures
BARNABY Festival organisers are celebrating yet another record breaking year boosting the economy by a massive £400,000.
The team behind the popular event have totted up the numbers from the fifth festival to determine its impact on the town.
Last year the not-forprofit event attracted 13,000 people to see 48 music, drama, comedy and visual arts events at 32 venues which they reckon generated £400,000 for the local economy.
Visitor numbers also increased by 30 percent from the previous year.
More than 1,000 people took part in Carnival Parade and art on display across 36 exhibitions featured the work of 120 artists.
The impressive figures are down to the hard work of Barnaby’s team, with more than 200 volunteers donating their time to the organisation and running of all the events.
Lynne Jones, chairman, said 97pc of questionnaire respondents rated the festival ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. She said: “Our efforts in putting on the festival have been rewarded by the positive response from residents, partners and visitors.”
The festival is taking a break this year to become biennial.
The 2016 event is from June 17 to 16. It’s grown each year since its launch in 2010 to re-invent the town’s ancient tradition of marking St Barnabas day.
Lynne said: “Barnaby has exceeded all our expectations. To continue to deliver an original festival of the same scale we’ve taken the decision to become biennial. We’ll be back on the streets of Macclesfield in 2016.”
The first open meeting of the year is at ArtSpace, Sutton Mill, Heapy Street, on Tuesday, February 24 at 8pm. Contact mail@ barnabyfestival.co.uk to get involved.