Stratospheric success for Barnaby fest
BARNABY Festival smashed box office records and brought more visitors into town than ever.
Organisers sold nearly 4,000 tickets with a value of £36,500 – almost double the numbers for the last festival in 2014 when 1,700 tickets were sold worth £21,500.
It’s the most tickets sold since the festival started in 2010 as a reinvention of the town’s historic Barnaby Fair.
Even more people attended non-ticketed events. Around 4,000 spectators watched the Barnaby parade and 5,000 people enjoyed street entertainment at Street Treats in Market Place and music venue Gimp Twister Music Lounge over the first weekend.
There were 1,300 people at the Astronomer’s Story, a family theatre experi- ence from Wild Rumpus, and The Planets: Guide to the Orchestra, run by Macclesfield Music Centre at Macclesfield Library, attracted more than 770 visitors.
More than 700 adults and children visited the Deep Space and Solar Lab, where real lunar and meteor samples were on show on loan from NASA.
There were 179 love letters to Macc written in a project run by Arts for Recovery in the Community which are to be printed on silk by RA Smart and displayed at Macclesfield Library, an event sponsored by the Express.
Comic convention Macc-POW! attracted 500 enthusiasts and 1,000 people gathered on Christ Church lawns to see ‘Moon Rising’, the finale of family events programme La Lune.
There was 88 per cent attendance at all events.
The result was more people coming to the fes- tival than ever – more than the 13,000 visits recorded at the last festival and likely to exceed its target of 15,000.
The team are looking at feedback forms to work out the benefit to the Macclesfield economy.
Karl Wallace, director, said: “We’ve smashed our box office records and attendance at events created with local groups and artists has been particularly high.
“Seeing how the arts and culture bring a town together, seeing young people being inspired, it’s really humbling.
“We’re delighted with all the positive comments but it won’t be until we’ve read and heard all the feedback that we’ll have the full picture. We won’t rest on our laurels. There’s a lot to digest and learn to help Barnaby grow and prosper.”
Give feedback at barnabyfestival. org. uk/ getinvolved/ festival- feedback.