Glastonbury Festival - Local Benefits

Local Benefits

Glastonbury Festivals Ltd spends over £3 million with local companies every year that a Festival is held - and has done since 2000. Wherever possible local suppliers are used.

The Festival directly employs some 1100 people with a PAYE wage bill of around £500,000. 25% of that workforce comes from the local area earning £300,000 - which is over 60% of the total monies spent on wages each year.

Glastonbury Festival 2003 paid in excess of £1,000,000 to charities and local groups. Major projects included completing the renovation of the Pilton Working Men’s Club, the virtual completion of the Pilton Abbey Barn and the renovation of the Pilton Parish Hall. This was a lengthy project and monies from Glastonbury Festival 2004 were required to complete work on the Parish Hall.

Following Glastonbury Festival 2004, over £1m has already been paid to charities and local causes, including a one off donation of £100,000 to Oxfam’s Sudan Crisis appeal. A major project utilising revenue from the 2004 Festival, which is currently in the planning stages, is building a housing scheme, similar to the project completed in 1994. This will involve the provision of land, building materials and an architect to build a further housing scheme for locals who can not afford Pilton prices. Once completed it will be run by a housing association, with affordable rents being implicit

There are many other local benefits directly arising from the festival, the extent of which are difficult to quantify. Research suggests that for every pound spent by a festival, there is a further £2.5 resultant spending elsewhere in the economy. In round figures Glastonbury Festival spends £14 million, so including the estimated resultant spend, the total impact of the festival on the economy could be some £50 million.

There are many trading opportunities for local residents - over 130 stalls come from within 25 miles of the site - with a further 80 coming from the greater South West. Glastonbury Festival represents a significant part of the trading income for many small businesses.

Glastonbury, Shepton Mallet and Wells Tourist Information Centres have about 200 hotels and bed and breakfasts on their books. More than fifty other households are known to take in people during the festival. Together this amounts to in excess of 2500 beds being occupied during the festival period. On average, people stay between two nights and five nights, sometimes longer, spending between £50 and £400 per head, sometimes more. It is estimated in excess of £250,000 is spent in the local community on accommodation as a result of the festival.

Ticket holders bring over 30,000 cars to Glastonbury Festival. In addition are were contractors, crew and performers vehicles. Many use local garages for fuel. (assuming the average amount spent per vehicle on fuel is about £10, the total spent on fuel each year could well be in excess of £300,000.) Local garages also increase their revenue by towing cars and carrying out repairs. Local shops and pubs enjoy an increase in trade as well.

The Festival Crew and the Fence Crew start setting up the site over a month before the Festival and remain for a similar time afterwards. They consistently use the amenities in the village and surrounding towns.

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