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Large groups coming together to enjoy music is an excellent use of a park
Except for the obvious commercial interest, what's so special about "Large groups coming together"? Is it some sort of primitive tribal instinct, or a pathetically juvenile fuzzy feeling of togetherness? Is that the trivial reason why the commercially disinterested think the rest of us have to suffer these events?
When music is imposed on me, however excellent someone else might think it is, it isn't music at all; it's just nuisance noise. Perhaps if the crowd were smaller, the noise wouldn't have to be so loud.
- large sections of the park closed off for weeks (in a pretty ugly way at that)
- the park suffering degradation due to intensive use (hardly thriving)
- huge amounts of litter
- very busy stations and streets
- noise
- public order offences such a fighting, public urination, drug dealing, etc
In return, seemingly no benefit to residents and park users. Yes, there is money, but the council simply uses that to reduce the parks budget, so I don't think there is a net increase in park funding.
Maybe they would only be providing £500k?
I have no idea. All I know is that all the money FP raises gets spent on FP. And that I think the park should be used for big events.
Also noteworthy here is an increased investment in staffing. According to the council's response, this will include the establishment of a dedicated Park Manager, two Park Rangers, a team of 5.5 Park Keepers dealing with bin emptying and litter picking in the park and dedicated Project Officer to implement the improvements. The Park Manager, Park Rangers and expanded Park Keeper team will be in place before the spring. The Project Officer is now in post.
I remember talking to a park keeper in Hackney a few years ago. He said he was the only guy covering a few parks and it was a struggle. So this sounds like quite a good number of people.
Looking at the budget in the table on the Haringay site the Staffing costs for Park keepers etc are £88k 18/19 and rise to £185k 19/20.
They've been pimping the Park out for years now, and I go back to Madstock and the Fleadh. Surely the Park Keepers should be there already.
Haringey paid for an economic impact assessment of the various festivals in Finsbury Park. If you cannot sleep check it out here (bit.ly/2OSIBfd). @haringeycouncil were a little bit coy about releasing.
In 2018, 306,097 people visited festivals in the park. Only 8% of attendees live in Haringey, 33% elsewhere in London and 55% from the rest of UK. (These events are not a 'local' or 'community' cultural event put on for people living nearby).
84% of visitors came on public transport (tube / train / bus). No wonder Finsbury Park is so popular with event companies - how many other big public spaces are so well connected?
On average, event goers spend a total of £172pp ex. tickets (!). The bulk of that is spent in the festival - £90 - going to the organisers @slamminevents and @LiveNationUK. £72pp is spent elsewhere in London, and a measly £9.73pp spent in Harginey. (Bravo for local businesses).
Punters spent c.£38m on the events (£27m in the festivals, c£11m of ticket sales). @haringeycouncil said income from the events for (ab)using the park each year is c£1.1m. That's what - only about 2.5% of organiser revenue? (Why is the council not getting a better deal?)
Festival goers also spent money elsewhere in London - about £21m. BUT only £2.9m was spent in Haringey. Local biz did note this increase in turn over but most money went to pubs. (The borough is feeling the pain but not capturing a broad based economic return for it).
The survey talks about job creation. It recons at peak c. 3k people work on big events, with c 19,000 man days of effort across all of them. Sounds a lot until you annualise it to ... 9 people's jobs. And the bulk of that work is short term contract security / bar work.
The @FourthStreetUK report is diligent. 2 simple conclusions for me. 1/ Festivals can have positive economic impacts BUT Haringey isn't seeing them. 2/ Events companies are making serious money (OK) but councils are failing to capture a sensible share to offset the local impact.
So what: The council should reduce the size & frequency of events, & confidently demand more cash for the pleasure of leasing our lovely public space. I sympathise with council budget cuts & that Nice Things Cost Money... but income can still be made through more delicate use.
I'd welcome any comments from @haringeycouncil or @kirstenhearn (who was kind enough to discuss the topic briefly recently). fyi @andrewsmithwest and @danhancox and @islingtongztte. Forgive in advance any misinterpretations of the report.