East Suffolk Council

Posted by on 25 April 2022 | Comments

Feedback from visitors attending four festival-style markets in Saxmundham, Beccles, Lowestoft and Leiston has indicated that the events significantly encouraged footfall to the towns.

Run by First Light Festival Community Interest Company (CIC) and supported by East Suffolk Council (ESC), the MarketPlace project aimed to strengthen the economic health of towns through innovative curated markets.

Of those visitors surveyed at the events:

• 54% said that the event was the sole reason for visiting the town centre that day;

• 57% said it was the cultural experience that attracted them to the event, with 49% saying it was the retail/market focus

• 87% agreed the festival-style events would encourage them to visit towns they otherwise normally would not

• 80% said that regular monthly events/markets would encourage them to visit the towns more often in the future

All four markets were family-oriented and had a celebratory atmosphere, with live music from local musicians and DJs, street performances, workshops, locally-sourced food and drink, as well as children’s activities.

According to the survey, the performances and live music were the most popular attractions with nearly half of all the respondents, followed by the children’s activities (19%).

Anecdotally, the events were popular with the traders as well:

“It would be great to think that events like this could be a regular feature in Lowestoft’s calendar,” said a Lowestoft trader.

“We would love to see other events like this take place in Beccles. It certainly brought excitement and cheer to our community," added a Beccles trader.

ESC received funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to support the safe return to high streets and help start building back better from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the umbrella heading of ‘Welcome Back,’ the MarketPlace project seeks to support the local economy of East Suffolk towns as part of their economic and community recovery, while celebrating place and ultimately raising the profile of East Suffolk within the visitor economy.

In addition to the actual events, First Light Festival CIC also delivered a consultancy package of support on best practice for event development. Framlingham, Bungay, Lowestoft and Felixstowe all received an online masterclass with Wayne Hemingway, First Light CIC director and co-founder of Hemingway Design Studio. Each town has since received an events toolkit to help them with their own event-planning.

Additional funds are now available to run a second phase of the project.

Genevieve Christie, one of First Light Festival’s CIC directors said:

“We’re excited to see the difference these markets have made to the towns which took part in phase one of the MarketPlace project. So often market towns are overlooked by visitors but these events really have given the towns a sense of pride. created community cohesion and will hopefully inspire sustainable future events. We’re very much looking forward to delivering a further number of events this autumn as part of phase two of the project.”

Cllr Craig Rivett, East Suffolk Council’s Deputy Leader and cabinet member for Economic Development and Assets said:

“I’m really pleased to have been able to support these festival-style markets in four of our towns. It’s extremely encouraging to know that such a high percentage of visitors felt inspired to return in the future.

“It’s crucial that we support those businesses that were so adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. They can’t recover and thrive again without people coming through their doors – but recent evidence would suggest that the spark is being reignited in our high streets.

“Well done to everyone involved and I look forward to seeing what’s in store for the second stage of the project this autumn.”