Liverpool's Magnificent City Programme Attracts 1.6m Visitors
LIVERPOOL’S seven week programme celebrating its relationship with Cunard, links with the USA and its cultural gems attracted an estimated 1.6 million visitors.
One Magnificent City (OMC) has been hailed a huge success with a packed programme which ran from Friday 15 May until Sunday 5 July.
Many cultural venues, attractions and businesses saw a massive increase in the number of visitors as a direct result of events held as part of the programme – with increases of up to 180 percent during the Three Queens weekend, and over 300,000 people visiting Liverpool ONE.
Some highlights included:
• Albert Dock Liverpool: A huge boost in business was experienced during the OMC programme, and during the T175 weekend alone footfall exceeded 75,000.
Three Cunard Queens: Officially named as one of Merseyside’s most successful free events, Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral attracted a massive 1.2million people from Saturday 23 until Tuesday 26 May. With Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria meeting on the River Mersey for the first time and three nights of the stunning projection show, Amazing Graces, taking place on the Pier Head, it boosted the local economy by nearly £33million and the media coverage it received was worth £30million.
LightNight: With the theme Looking to the New World, this was the first OMC event and saw 137 free events take place on the night of Friday 15 May. It attracted more than 65,000 visitors – the highest in LightNight’s history – who flocked to 56 cultural venues and spaces in the city.
International Mersey River Festival: Taking place from Friday 5 - Sunday 7 June, the waterfront welcomed 220,000 visitors who enjoyed a weekend of boats, live music, street entertainment, air displays and a raft race. Kicking off in conjunction with BBC Music Day on the 5 June, homecoming performances from DJ Craig Charles and Rebecca Ferguson were a highlight for many. The city also played host to the first ever Northern Boat Show which was enjoyed by visitors and exhibitors alike. Boat sales were made and organisers are already planning their return in 2016 when the festival takes place on 3-5 June 2016.
Rock n Roll Marathon: A riot of music and culture took over the city on 14 and 15 June with 12,000 runners enjoying the two-day festival.
Transatlantic 175 weekend (T175): An independent economic impact report due out in a couple of months will reveal the full effects of the weekend, but without a doubt it was a hugely successful couple of days. Liverpool created a new Guinness World Record – 3651 for the most people modelling on a catwalk, smashing the record by 568 people and celebrating with a huge disco on the dock. It also hosted its first ever classic car cavalcade along with a vintage and food festival. The weekend was curated by designer Wayne Hemingway and at this stage is believed to have attracted 250,000 people to the waterfront across the two days.
Some of the events already formed part of the city’s cultural calendar, the rest were new commissions funded through the Mayor’s Fund.
Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, said: “The achievements of the last seven weeks are astounding.
“Not only have we had a series of major events pulling in huge crowds, but interspersed with these have been unique cultural commissions giving some of our arts organisations the opportunity to be part of this special programme.
“A full analysis of the seven weeks will take some time to compile, but we already know that we’ve attracted more than 1.6 million visitors alone during this short period of time and the economic benefit is in its tens of millions.
“I’m proud to be Mayor of a city that values its cultural offering and understands the boost it can give, not only in monetary terms, but in the pride that it engenders in the people who live in Liverpool. When it comes to events the ambitions of this city are unrivalled – with a programme of challenging and mostly free activities, Liverpool has without a doubt raised the bar
“And it’s important to remember that our events season isn’t over yet - Liverpool International Music Festival returns in August and the always popular fireworks displays will take place in November.”
To look back at One Magnificent City visit www.onemagnificentcity.co.uk or follow @OMCLpool on Twitter and One Magnificent City Liverpool on Facebook.