Portsmouth Victorious Festival worth £15m to local economy

Portsmouth’s Victorious Festival contributed over £15million to the local economy in 2021.

A report into the impact of the festival, financial and otherwise, concluded that the Southsea Common music and arts event resulted in a local economic impact of £15, 525, 675.

This was an almost 25% rise from 2019 levels. The 2020 festival was cancelled due to coronavirus regulations.

Significant contributions were made by the fact that 73% of attendees to the festival travelled from outside Portsmouth, up from 66% in 2019. More than one in three people (36%) stayed overnight and, underlining, the festivals family friendly ethos 27% of attendees brought children.

In all 73,220 unique visitors, a total of 161, 612 attendances between August 27 and 29 watched headline performances from The Streets, Royal Blood and Madness.

These was comparable to 74,301 and 146,394 visitors in 2019.

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Festival director James Ralls said: “We are proud to be a part of the local community and delighted to have made a significant contribution to the economy especially in light of the additional challenges and costs incurred by the pandemic.

“We are busy working on next year’s event and remain confident that will return even more benefits for the city.”

The 2022 festival will be headlined by Anne Marie, Sam Fender, Ocean Colour Scene and Paulo Nutini.

A spokesperson for Portsmouth Council said: “This festival is part of the established calendar of events in Portsmouth. It works on a series of levels for a whole lot of groups so its impact goes beyond the economic impacts which are both real and significant.”

All figures were compiled by Bluegrass Research.

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