Agenda item

Presentation by the Chief Executive, Cheltenham Festivals

Donna Renney, Chief Executive, Cheltenham Festivals (CF), gave her presentation which is attached to these minutes for information.

Members asked about whether the two box offices (Regent Arcade and the mobile box office) had caused confusion. The Chief Executive, CF, acknowledged that it had been difficult. She acknowledged that the Regent Arcade box office was probably surplus to requirements and in fact its location had limited footfall. In any case 65 % of bookings were taken online. When asked whether the Regent Arcade box office was overstaffed the Chief Executive explained that there were peaks and troughs so it was about getting the balance right. This was the first year of this arrangement so lessons would be learnt from this.

In terms of ticketing problems the Chief Executive explained that the issue was that prepaid tickets could only be collected at one site during the festival. This was to prevent customers wishing to purchase tickets during the festival from queueing for long periods for the print out of pre-paid tickets so they were all printed out at once. It was recognised that customers were confused about where and when their tickets would be available and it was suggested that in future customers could be given timeslots for collection.

A member asked whether the Chief Executive CF could provide a full report on the education plan of the business including the number of senior and junior schools from within Cheltenham which were involved. The Chief Executive undertook to forward the report. Cllr Smith informed the Chief Executive of the County Council’s Corporate Parenting Committee and invited her to contact him about bringing its interests into the Festivals Education Plan.

In terms of Festival ticket sales the Chief Executive explained that 100 events had been sold out. Production costs had however been higher than expected with the invoice for rectifying Montpellier Gardens being quite significant and the trackway had not been taken account of costings. She highlighted however that there would be an opportunity for more sponsorship, it was a question of getting the balance right. A member requested figures on which events had been sold out.

When asked whether the Festivals had received complaints regarding noise during set up, during the event and taking down, the Chief Executive explained that these were not significant but mainly focussed on the setting up where contractors were behind schedule. This was unfortunately not at the time reported by neither the security team nor the contractors. The challenge remained that there was only a limited number of days granted by the council for CF to set up and this was always going to prove difficult.

Members congratulated Cheltenham Festivals for navigating the growth phase.It was asked what the Festival’s approach was to international aspects of the Festivals. In response the Chief Executive (CF) explained that these were mainly for the science festival and it was developing consultancy contracts with Norway and Austria. It did want to develop an international presence for the music festival but currently there were no plans for the Literature Festival.

When asked about the increased income from food and beverage provision at the Literature Festival, the Chief Executive (CF) explained that this increase was limited as there was no power or water in Montpellier gardens so both generators and water had to be brought on to the site.  The provision of food did not have an adverse effect on local traders and in fact there had been an upswing in trade. In terms of long term plans for the provision of electricity and water the Chief Executive (CF) explained that discussions were underway with the Council and Cabinet Member Sustainability about this. It would require a mini substation but this was likely to be too expensive so some sort of compromise would have to be reached.

When asked further about the loss of a significant sponsor of the jazz festival the Chief Executive explained that sponsorship was now going well as now there was provision in Montpellier gardens. There was a strong programme for the jazz festival and the ability to build a 1500 seater venue meant that attracting high profile artists would make it more financially viable. In terms of the offer to small children at the Literature Festival the focus would be more on Montpellier Gardens.

The Chair thanked the Chief Executive (CF) for her presentation.