Calderdale council tax payers to fund huge festival losses

A Calderdale Inside Out investigation has uncovered Stage at the Lake’s recorded expenditure was more than three times its ticket income. The huge festival budget was greenlit following council decisions to reduce youth work, end discretionary childcare inclusion funding and cut spending on library books.

Back in August I bought (some quite pricey) tickets to the musicals night at the inaugural “Stage At The Lake” festival organised by the council’s Culturedale team. It was great. But as I looked around at the staffing, infrastructure, and lack of audience I started wondering….. how much did all this cost?

So taking careful note of who the suppliers were, we painstakingly worked through supplier payment details (helped by a couple of internal council whistleblowers).