T-Live helps put Telford on the map
This year’s T-Live music events played an important part in helping to promote Telford and the new Southwater development, bringing more visitors and money into the borough.
The two days of concerts of internationally renowned acts included Rick Astley, Go West, Lawson and Union J and attracted over 3,600 fans.
The event received very strong support from the borough’s business community, generating more than £91,000 in sponsorship.
Taking into account tickets sales, sponsorship and grants for live events, the Council spent £28,758 on T-Live. This money has come from a dedicated Destination Telford budget, of £100,000, put aside for 2014/15 by the Council to support a range of activities to help promote the borough including T-Live.
This Destination Telford budget is also supporting a range of other local events, including the free T-Party festival in early August.
Compared with 2013’s T-Live, income from 2014’s event increased by over £36,000 or 17 per cent, while the amount from grants to help fund T-Live was more than halved, falling by over £60,000.
Councillor Shaun Davies, cabinet member with responsibility for T-Live, said: “T-Live helped to promote the borough in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible and brought many new visitors here, while showcasing the great facilities at Southwater and the Town Park to our residents, who made up around three-quarters of our audience.
“We are working hard to promote the borough as a destination for people to come to.
“T-Live, and T-Party earlier in the summer, and events like the Southwater opening and the Drive in Movie next month, show the great facilities that we have here and what Telford has to offer can attract visitors from across the region.
“The Town Park’s arena is ideal for holding large staged events and the new Southwater development offers a vibrant destination with great leisure facilities such as the ice rink, high ropes course, IMAX cinema and adventure golf, with great restaurants and, in the next few weeks, bars. The leisure market is becoming an even more important part of our local economy.
“Couple this with the broader offer that Telford and Wrekin and its market towns have and events such as T-Live are exactly the right thing to do to help push our borough forward and transform the image of Telford as a place that people and business want to come to because exciting things are happening here.”
The Council will wait to see the availability and quality of bands before making any decisions on T-Live in 2015 and this unlikely to be until early next year.
