‘It was a lesson in how to unpick an event’: How a popular festival folded

Good afternoon readers — and welcome to our Monday briefing. 

Sheffield’s musical heritage is rightly famous throughout the world, but live music in the city is going through a difficult time. Last Thursday, the organisers of Music in the Gardens — a festival “for those who don’t fancy attending a musical festival,” held in Sheffield Botanical Gardens since 2005 — announced the popular event was over forever. We spoke to a member of the team about the complex reasons behind its collapse, to explore what this could mean for the future of Sheffield’s other live music events.

As well as that, we have a great shot of yesterday’s drum & bass bike ride in Sheffield, an important update about the new Lidl at St Mary’s Gate, and two comedy legends come to the Peak District.

Catch up and coming up

For our weekend read, Daniel Timms asked if the long battle between Sheffield city centre and Meadowhall might finally be won — by the city centre. You can still read that piece here.

Last week we sent out two great newsletters to our 1,676 paying members. In the first, Victoria spoke to the new chief executive of Sheffield Theatres Tom Bird about why he was so keen to take the job and his high hopes for the future. And in the second, Dan travelled to Nether Edge to find out why councillors chose to ignore a report they had commissioned and scrap a key part of a low traffic neighbourhood. An extract from that second piece is below.

A bit further up Edgedale Road I bump into Carter Knowle resident Barry Boden on his way to the chemist — on foot. He tells me he very rarely uses the Archer Lane itself, but does regularly use Abbeydale Road on his way into town and back. Like the dog walker, he claims that the closure has pushed huge amounts of traffic onto Abbeydale Road, leading to much longer journeys and “gridlock” at times. When he tells me that’s not a controversial opinion in the area, I say most parents at the top say they like it. “They obviously don't drive up and down Abbeydale Road very much,” he responds.

Next week we’ll send out two more including Dan’s visit to the iconic Moore Street electricity substation for the My Brutal Life exhibition, and another about a spate of attacks on buses at Manor Top. To help fund a new way of doing journalism in Sheffield based on subscriptions rather than clickbait and endless stories about celebrities, please subscribe using the button below. It costs just £1.34 a week or 23p a day if you pay for 12 months up front (£70).

Editor’s note: The Tribune has had a great start to the month, with 30 new members joining us so far. Welcome to you all. As you may have read in the piece we sent out yesterday, as well as being very nice, I believe the amount of support we get via recommendations and comments is proof that our model works. People value deeply-researched journalism, not throwaway clickbait. Join almost 1,700 others by becoming a member of The Tribune today.

The big picture: Two-wheeled takeover 🚲

Thousands of cyclists hit the streets of Sheffield yesterday as Dom Whiting’s drum & bass bike ride returned to the city. The ride set off from Tudor Square at 2pm before making its way through the city centre and ending up at Endcliffe Park. The amazing photo above was taken by @shotbygenaro on Rockingham Street (you can find more of his work on his Instagram and Facebook pages). To watch the full two-hour video of the ride, click here.

This week’s weather 🌦

Our weather forecast comes from dedicated Sheffield weather service Steel City Skies, who say high pressure to the south hangs on to start, but more active fronts threaten from midweek, with temperatures declining.

Monday 🌥 A dull start again, with cloud expected to break later on in the afternoon. Another warm one, with light winds and highs of 23°C.

Tuesday ☁  SW winds freshen as a low spins close to Iceland. Still warm, with cloud amounts on the high side again. Highs of 22°C with a cold front waiting.

Wednesday 🌦 Cold fronts head south, ushering away the warm airmass. Some early rain clearing to brighter weather and a few showers. Highs of 18°C with moderate westerlies.

Thursday ⛅️ A brief incursion of high pressure should keep the day bright and settled with lighter winds. Much cooler by day and night, with highs of 14°C.

Friday ☔️ Milder air tries to push in along a warm front to the south. If it does, expect cloud and rain, though it is uncertain. Windier from the SW with highs of 16°C.

Outlook: Current picture is for another cold front to clear the air from the northwest, bringing clearer, colder and fresher weather for the weekend with showers possible. Subject to change with regards to timings and progression of fronts.

To see the full forecast and keep up to date with any changes to the outlook, follow Steel City Skies on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

The big story: ‘It was a lesson in how to unpick an event’ — How a popular festival folded

Top line: Last week, it was announced that Music in the Gardens — a series of annual summer concerts held at Sheffield Botanical Gardens since 2005 — “will not be returning”. This year’s event had already been cancelled in February due to “significant changes within the organising team” and, in a statement on Facebook on Thursday, those remaining revealed that the organisation had folded once and for all. Andrew Bates, a member of the team for 12 years, described its gradual decline to The Tribune as “a lesson in how to unpick an event”.

An untenable effort: Music in the Gardens billed itself as a “music festival for those who do not fancy the idea of attending a musical festival,” allowing attendees to bring their own food and drink and see “world-recognised top artists at realistic prices”. The event was organised by the Rotary Clubs of South Yorkshire, raised £500,000 for local charities over the years and booked acts like UB40, James, The Feeling and 10cc. In their Facebook statement, the organisers wrote:

"The costs of staging the event, the rapidly inflating costs of artists, the tightening restrictions imposed on the requirements of outdoor venues, have made the event untenable.

"Add to that the lack of willing volunteers prepared to give an extensive amount of time required means the organisation has folded."

A turning point: Andrew Bates told The Tribune the circumstances behind the event’s end were “complex”. Music in the Gardens started off “very low-key” but, while organisers were already naturally keen “to make it a little bit better each year,” they also realised in the summer of 2012 that they would have to grow to survive. 

• That summer was “horrendous,” with a month’s worth of rain falling in one day during the event. “Outdoor events are always hostage to the weather,” Bates pointed out, but what saved Music in the Gardens was that a significant number of people had pre-booked tickets, drawn in by that year’s headline act: 10cc. 
• From then on, the team “were geared towards bringing in higher-quality acts” because they knew that even great local acts “were not bringing the numbers in”. They were so unusually ambitious for a Rotary Club event that, on the year they booked Bananarama, they realised many attendees had shown up expecting a tribute act.

An un-captive audience: While local festivals like Tramlines have been criticised for strict rules around re-entry, seemingly intended to force attendees to buy expensive food and drink inside the festival, Music in the Gardens suffered from the downsides of a more relaxed approach. Without a captive audience, all of their profit had to come from ticket sales — and the event capacity was capped at 3,000 people. “Getting the ticket price to pay for everything was becoming more and more difficult as time went on,” Bates said, especially as raising the price too high would put people off something billed as a casual event.

Cost-of-living crisis: After Covid, the problems the event had already been facing became even more pronounced. “Contractors were charging a lot more, acts were charging a lot more, some fees had quadrupled from what we were used to,” Bates said. The event had to rely more and more on less expensive local and tribute acts, which didn’t bring in the same ticket sales.

• Other local music events are clearly feeling the same pressure. This weekend was supposed to be the return of No Bounds festival, an annual event started by Hope Works owner Liam O’Shea. However, the event was cancelled in August, which a statement from the festival described as a “very difficult decision” made “in order for No Bounds to survive”. They wrote: "The last year has been extremely challenging for many of us, with barriers to funding and a cost-of-living crisis adding to ever-increasing production costs.”
• Last year, the three-day event included scores of DJs and live acts, alongside talks and workshops, in 11 venues around the city and the opening concert was held in Sheffield Cathedral. In its stead this weekend, Hope Works is putting on two club nights on Friday and Saturday, with a far greater emphasis on local acts.

A double bind: On the one hand, Bates doesn’t regret the move to expand Music in the Gardens, even though the event became far more costly. “If we had kept it small, we wouldn’t have raised anywhere near the sort of money we did,” he pointed out. However, the twin goals of the event were to raise money for local charities and give local people a great time and, as time went on, the organisers realised they were missing their first goal — all of the money raised was being used to pay for the event, with none left over for charities. 

The team was also getting older and smaller, dropping from around a dozen members to just six. “The last few did put an awful lot on just a few people,” Bates said, adding that he had to take a week off work each year to help run it. He was the team’s youngest member, in his mid-60s, while the chairman was in his 80s. “We started off as bright young things and wore ourselves out.” 

Room for new growth: Ultimately, Bates isn’t surprised that their efforts to bring in new volunteers were unsuccessful. “People tend to want to run their own ideas and their own initiatives,” he said. “It was time to step back and let someone else have a go with their own event.” 

But he is clear that he is glad to have given up a chunk of his summer each year, and proud that so many organisers and volunteers were willing “to be very unselfish with their time” to keep it going as long as it did. “I don’t regret a minute of it — we got it to where it was known as Britain’s largest single Rotary event — but that’s as far as the moment goes really.”

Our take: There’s an inherent gamble in organising events — promoters I’ve spoken to have told me that the fear no one will show up never really goes away. But, as the cost-of-living crisis makes the consequences of failure even more serious, fewer and fewer people are likely to be willing to take that risk. Sheffield’s live events seem to be faced with an unenviable decision: like Tramlines, they can introduce measures to boost profits and risk putting off supporters; or, like No Bounds, they can flirt with financial ruin. Unless things change soon, it’s unfortunately probable that more and more smaller events will go the same way as Music in the Gardens.

Home of the week 🏡

This light and airy two-bedroom mid-terrace in Crookes benefits from stunning architectural design and a spacious rear yard which is “a real sun trap”. It is on the market for £250,000.

Tribune Tips: If you want to tell us about a story or give us some information, please email editor@sheffieldtribune.co.uk. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity.

Our media picks 🎧

U2 creative chief on show, reaction and Sheffield life 🎸 The brains behind U2’s current Las Vegas residency at the high-tech Sphere venue is a “lad from Sheffield”, the BBC report. Willie Williams, who grew up on Ecclesall Road, is a set designer who has worked with artists including George Michael, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones. He attributes some of his success to growing up during Sheffield's “truly inspiring and interesting music scene”.

How Sheffield MP helped build Olympic legacy in home city 🏗️ A great interview in the Yorkshire Post with former sports minister Richard Caborn as he prepares to retire from his role as head of the Olympic Legacy Park. The OLP was set up to help secure the legacy of the 2012 games, and now has sports facilities, schools and research bodies on site. The latest addition, the Sheffield Sharks basketball team’s new stadium, opened last weekend.

Gone Fishing 🐟 Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse’s “slow television” sleeper-hit returned to the Peak District, where they filmed their first episode back in 2017. The pair visit the stunning Monsal Head, before fishing the River Wye at Haddon Hall, hoping to catch chub, rainbow trout and wild brown trout, and then moving on to the River Derwent. As they cast, they recall memories of that first trip and look at how they’ve changed over the last six years.

A Lidl update 🏪

A plan to turn the former Mothercare store on St Mary’s Retail Park into a Lidl store has been withdrawn. Proposals to build the supermarket were lodged with Sheffield City Council last year, but were opposed by the Sheaf and Porter Rivers Trust, which called for the firm to uncover 70 metres of the Porter Brook which runs beneath the store’s car park.

As we reported last year, Lidl wanted to create a new 2,400 square metre superstore and spaces for 70 cars at the site. However, the trust argued that the retailer’s plans were in contravention of council policy on opening up rivers where possible and would frustrate their long-term aim of making a continuous walking trail along the Porter Brook.

The firm came back with a new proposal which would have seen just seven metres of the river opened up, but a few days later completely withdrew their application. The trust says they would still welcome a future application for the site which reveals and restores the river.

Things to do 📆

Theatre 🎭 On at The Leadmill on Tuesday, 10 October is New Dawn Fades, a highly-acclaimed play about the music of Joy Division and Manchester. “Mr Manchester” Tony Wilson guides the audience through the heart and soul of both the band and the city, introducing a host of Mancunian historical figures including Roman General Julius Agricola, Dr John Dee, Frederich Engels and Pete Shelley. Tickets are £20 and doors open at 7pm.

Books 🎤 At Sheffield City Hall on Tuesday, foul-mouthed acting legend Miriam Margolyes will be live on stage in her biggest tour yet to mark the launch of her new book, Oh Miriam! Stories from an Extraordinary Life. Reliably outrageous and always entertaining, join Margolyes, in conversation, for an evening as full of life and surprises as the self-declared “national trinket” herself. Tickets are priced from £30.50-£63.95 and doors open at 6.30pm. 

Film 🍿 To mark the 50th anniversary of its release, The Exorcist is on at the Showroom cinema all week. Directed by the late, great William Friedkin, the 1973 film is generally thought to be one of the best films ever made (including by the nation’s favourite film critic Mark Kermode), and still has the power to terrify audiences. This version, which has been newly remastered and remixed, includes an additional 12 minutes to the original release.