A series of independent evaluation reports, published today at the Birmingham 2022 Festival Insight Event at the Birmingham Hippodrome, show the overall impact of the Festival as well as delving into key aspects of the programme and its effect on those who participated and attended as well as the wider region.
The nine independently-produced reports evaluate the successes, learnings and impact of the vibrant and dynamic six-month cultural programme. They include the insights and learnings on individual projects and initiatives during the Festival and a commitment to cement Birmingham’s reputation as an international centre of cultural and creative excellence.
They reveal powerful impacts on communities across the region and how it had diversity at its heart by engaging with a wide range of communities that represent ethnic diversity, gender, LGBTQIA+ and disability identities.
The reports also show a direct economic impact of £100 million and a further £87 million in GVA – additional value to the economy – including £47 million directly from tourists.
The evaluation shows a total attendance for the Festival Programme of 2,467,588, with 96 per cent of attendees rating their experience as good or excellent, while eight out of ten residents of the region said it had improved their own perceptions of where they live.
The combined workforce was 4,954 including staff and freelancers, with an additional 1,315 volunteers contributing to the Festival.
The Birmingham 2022 Festival successfully engaged 41,894 residents in active arts or cultural activities with the majority of participants directly engaged in an event performance or a creative project, with eight out of ten saying they had either gained new skills or improved skills.
The Festival directly commissioned 34 per cent of the projects while the overwhelming majority (63 per cent) saw more than £1.7 million distributed through the Creative City Grants programme that brought communities together with artists to create work for the Festival – from visual arts through to dance. This helped to take the Festival to people and places who would not normally engage with the arts.
Alongside that was a series of aligned projects that attracted a further 689,000 attendees and 33,000 participants. More than half of the workforce (freelance and employed) who created the Birmingham 2022 Festival were in new employment as a direct result of the Festival taking place supporting the growth of the sector in the city and wider region.
Nine out of ten of participants felt more connected to people in their community and eight out of ten said they had learned new skills because they had taken part.
The Festival programme also successfully engaged a broad range of people – with nearly half of all audiences surveyed coming from postcodes which Acorn Profiling identifies as ‘Financially Stretched’ (28 per cent) or Urban Adversity (17 per cent), which are typically less engaged by traditional arts and cultural activity. In addition, almost nine in ten said that the Festival had a positive impact on their physical health and mental wellbeing.
It had a positive impact on the cultural sector in terms of developing networks as nine out of ten of the lead organisations formed new partnerships thanks to their work on the Birmingham 2022 Festival, including communities, schools and smaller organisations.
And, undoubtedly, it helped to enhance Birmingham’s and the wider region’s reputation and profile with 83 per cent of tourists saying that it had improved their perception of the city and the West Midlands while 55 per cent of tourists who attended events said the Festival was their primary reason for visiting, including 383,571 total generated tourist night stays.
The overarching report was led by the Indigo-Ltd Consortium Evaluation Team with further reports on Critical Mass (The Audience Agency), Skills Development (Punch Records & Indigo-Ltd), International Collaboration (The Audience Agency), LGBTQ+ Space (Dr Roz Stewart-Hall) Creative City Grants Programme (M-E-L Research), Route 34: North Birmingham Alliance (Earthen Lamp), Untold Stories (Punch Records & Indigo-Ltd) and Co-Creation (Punch Records & Indigo-Ltd).
They identified a range of key outcomes that will contribute to the legacy of the Festival, such as continuing to change perceptions of Birmingham and the West Midlands, including an International Festival for Birmingham, a programme of work to build on the successful creative approach to heritage demonstrated through the Festival, continuing to diversify audiences and artists in the region and development work to support freelancers and artists as they continue to recover from the pandemic.
Culture Central has been identified as the Birmingham 2022 Festival legacy partner and will take forward the recommendations in partnership with funders and stakeholders in the region.
