September’s Stone Book Festival lost the town council almost £8,000 after disappointing ticket sales for some of the events.
Despite attracting big names like Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Labour peer Lord Hattersley, the festival failed to break even, as the town council had hoped. The council spent £13,000 on the event but made a net loss of £7,908.
Surprisingly, the Poet Laureate’s two shows at St Dominic’s Priory School suffered disappointing turn-outs, despite a sell-out appearance at the Crown Hotel during last year’s book festival, something our reviewer noted (click here to read).
Councillor Jill Hood said: “We had a good festival and quite a number of events were successful, but it will be left to next year’s council to decide whether they go ahead with the festival.”
What do you think? Does Stone need a book festival? You can comment below.
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3 comments
Clive Smith
The bottom line question is who pays for the loss, is it the hard pressed Stone town Council rate payer?
Disgruntled of Stone
What a disgrace this is: no wonder the Council had to cut back its support for the magnificent Music Festival to just £1,500 this year, one of the reasons why it couldn’t go ahead. Its about time Stone Town Council stopped trying to be entrepreneurs (because they aren’t) and helped the band of willing volunteers who give hours of their time to stage the Music Festival which provides wonderful entertainment for thousands of people and brings many, many visitors to the town.
Janet Francis
I felt that the tickets were too expensive. I was interested in some events but could not justify the cost. There could have been some cheaper less high brow events. Also, there could have been more of a “Fringe”.