Stage At Lake box office flop: Why did the Council’s Culturedale team spend almost £100K promoting just one event?

Calderdale Council admits “Stage At The Lake” required a “significant Council subsidy” after ticket sales fell short of its original business case. The acknowledgement comes after Calderdale Inside Out found almost £100,000 was spent on marketing consultants and advertising for the event.

It was meant to be the start of something big.

Launched in February, the four-day festival at Shibden Park was billed as a major new cultural event for Calderdale: both a celebration of the park’s public ownership centenary, and a legacy for the borough’s Year of Culture.

The line up looked great on paper: West End performers, comedy, classical music, brass bands, emerging local talent, family entertainment and community activity. I visited “Seeds of Hope”  - a community garden display funded by West Yorkshire Combined Authority – and it was fantastic. 

The council formally launched Stage at the Lake on 13 February, promoting it as a celebration bringing together major artists, local talent and community creativity. Then Cabinet Member for Public Services and Communities Danielle Durrans said it would build on the momentum created by CultureDale and described the festival as an example of “what lasting legacy looks like”.

But enthusiasm for 'legacy-creation' wasn’t shared by enough Calderdale residents.

In a detailed response to Calderdale Inside Out, a council spokesperson confirmed that Stage at the Lake required what it describes as a “significant Council subsidy”.

Ticket sales, it says, “did not achieve the levels anticipated in the original business case” with results falling well short of expectations. 

Consultant spend under the microscope

Let’s look at the numbers.