News Archive
PRESS RELEASE – 19/05/2006
BIG WEEKEND BIG SUCCESS FOR CITY
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As visitors descended on Dundee in their thousands the retail and leisure sector reaped the benefits of the biggest musical event in the city’s history. |
Lord Provost John Letford and Beano Editor, Ewan Kerr present DJ Chris Moyles of Radio 1 with a special print of The Beano… |
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City Centre Action Group Chair John Morton said, “On behalf of the Action Group I am pleased the BBC has seen Dundee fit to host such an event here, obviously recognising the potential that exists in the city.
“The City of Discovery has been the subject of every Radio 1 show for the last two weeks making people around the UK more aware and raising the profile of Dundee .
“In turn city centre retailers along with the rest of the city hope that this will continue into the long-term making Dundee a prime tourist destination and internally giving residents a greater sense of place.”
For many retailers sales predictions were estimated on the conservative side with so many out of town events on at the weekend but some were pleasantly surprised.
Zara Manager Jackie Reid believes the festival definitely brought more people into the city centre. She said, “There definitely seemed to be an increased number of people out and about over the weekend and our sales reflected that outperforming anticipated figures.
“In store we definitely felt the buzz of excitement of something major happening in Dundee and the weather definitely helped city centre stores and the build up to the Big Weekend during the week.”
For the leisure sector in Dundee city centre bars, clubs, restaurants and hotels were always going to feel the full force of the influx of musicians, executives and revellers descending on the city for the weekend of live music.
Hilton General Manager Eric Brown said from speaking to his colleagues in hotels around Dundee all were exceptionally busy. He said, “Clearly all hotels benefited significantly over the weekend with the BBC spreading their room allocations around the city and lucky ticket winners from far and wide booking in for the 2 days.
“Now an event such as Radio 1’s Big Weekend has been tried and tested Dundee must now build on the image created and the experience gained as a result of this event.
“Having large conferences and events such as this supports the city’s hotel infrastructure, which in turn impacts on the restaurants, bars, clubs and general leisure sector in the city.”
Eric believes it will be a little time yet before the full extent of the financial benefits of the weekend are known but would estimate that the beneficial effect of the Big Weekend perhaps had as much as 30% impact on rooms business over the 3 nights.
He continued, “Overall there is likely to be around a 15% business increase over the weekend, which is great as we expect most weekends to be pretty full anyway. How other hotels did, I cannot say, other than there were very few rooms to be had in the city on Friday or Saturday with some availability on Sunday.”
Westport Bar, which was part of the Friday Fringe gigs, has seen the reinvention of Dundee ’s music scene start already. Manager Sara Kennedy said, “Obviously as we were part of the build up to the weekend on the Friday night and included in Radio 1’s promotions we were very busy – taking an average weeks takings in approximately 5 hours.
“The impact of this has been huge for the Westport Bar – bands from all over the UK are now contacting us directly to play here and our owners Scottish & Newcastle have recognised the potential in live music, therefore investing in new staging and lighting equipment to give us greater appeal and professional feel.
Sara also believes many lessons have been learned by local novice acts which were around over Radio 1’s Big Weekend. She said, “More experienced acts understand what need to be done in terms of merchandising and marketing their appearances. The weekend was a chance for up and coming bands to see what needs to be done to really promote their performances and in turn making themselves more marketable and professional.
“There is no doubt Dundee has benefited substantially in the long-term as a result of Radio 1 coming to the city. It has pushed forward the development of our live music scene, has put us on the map and has boosted our economy which will hopefully continue to grow.”
City of Discovery Campaign Chair Lord Provost John Letford said, “There is no doubt the Big Weekend has been beneficial to the city bringing thousands of band lovers to Dundee for the weekend and so seeing for themselves what The City of Discovery has to offer in terms of leisure and recreation.
“I am sure there will be lasting effects for Dundee with all the promotion the Radio 1 DJs did over the month of May everybody in the country now knows where we are and some of what we have on offer.
“The City of Discovery has proven it can support an event on a large scale and now must build on the momentum and perceptions of Dundee create over the past few months and demonstrate Dundee is a city on the move with great aspirations for its future.”