Festival adds £4m to Great Yarmouth's economy, says organiser
A festival of circus and street arts has added £4m to a town's economy, according to its organisers. Fifty-five companies took part in The Out There Festival, which was held in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, from Thursday to Saturday.Out There Arts said the event attracted 65,000 people this year, compared with 40,000 in 2024.Joe Mackintosh, the company's artistic director, said: "We had some good weather, but [also] a phenomenal programme."
The festival saw 250 artists put on more than 150 hours of free entertainment across three days.Gorilla Circus performed AIthentic on Saturday, a play set on the jib of a mobile crane about a futuristic universe where users struggle to maintain control of their rights to use digital services, which was commissioned by Out There Arts and premiered at the festival.
Mr Mackintosh added: "We have had a lot of people who have discovered the festival for the first time and they've thought it was great, and we've also had more people stay longer."We've been booking hotels for artists and we've noticed how many of them have been full."
Mr Mackintosh added: "This is the second year since we moved [the event] to May [from September] and there's more room to grow this time of year."That allows us to grow across the week and build towards really big days on the Friday and Saturday."There was also a real international gathering and there was a huge buzz."We had 287 creative delegates, of which half were international, attending the Fresh Street conference [at the Hippodrome], and they have gone away saying 'wow' so it's been great."We also had a keynote speech from [the musician] Brian Eno, and he has now become a big fan of Great Yarmouth and says he will rave about it and promote the festival."
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