The Phoenix Festival Cirencester 2025

The local economy

The Phoenix Festival 2025 attracted 22,000 visitors over the course of the weekend, a significant increase in footfall for the town. Local pubs, hotels and restaurants were used by festival attendees over the weekend to reduce travel and embrace the opportunity to enjoy the town's offerings. This additional footfall also provided local traders with a surge in custom. We increased our celebrations by adding an additional 'chill out' Monday, which attracted more visitors to the area, adding additional revenue for local businesses and further strengthening Cirencester's economy. Local market traders and independent stall holders also had the opportunity to showcase their products within the festival site. Increasing their customer reach and generating further income for some of our smallest, independent businesses.

Volunteering, jobs & education

Everyone in the community was encouraged to volunteer, either planning the event or helping on the weekend itself. Volunteers worked collaboratively from the start of the project right up until and through the project execution over the weekend. Volunteers had the opportunity to gain confidence and real-life experience in: - Site planning - Liaising with professionals - Customer service skills - Team work - Risk management and coordinating with emergency services - Media Production - Stage crew support - Plus lots more This year, alongside our regular dedicated team we saw an additional 15 new adult volunteers plus 5 new youth volunteers.

Arts, culture & heritage

The Phoenix Festival inspires and promotes creativity throughout the whole weekend. We had over 120 applications to perform and over the weekend we invited 22 musicians/acts to join us and perform on a professional stage under the guidance of our experienced team and professional sound crew. The additional Monday allowed for a further 12 local musicians to perform in an open mic style setting to over a thousand people, with the youngest performer being just 14! The Creative wellbeing area was extremely popular with families exploring circus skills, African drumming, spray painting, junk modelling, construction and our arts and crafts tent. All of these activities were provided for free to the public to encourage them to try something new and explore their creativity with no boundaries. The Arena, invited 11 different groups to showcase their talents and encourage people to get involved. this included dancing and performing arts. Festival attendees engaged well and we had lots of positive feedback about the free activities and opportunities that were available. On Saturday we partnered with The Barn, The Corinium Museum and New Brewery Arts to put on the Orpheus parade which was a huge success. Puppets of all shapes and sizes paraded around the Abbey grounds and opened up our festival, gathering together in front of the main stage to perform a community song for Orpheus.

Activity, health and leisure

The Arena at The Phoenix Festival hosted a variety of different demonstrations and 'have a go' opportunities from 11 local community groups; from children football, dance, martial arts, gymnastics, boogie bounce, pole exercise and many more. Encouraging festival attendees to participate, try something new and discover what Cirencester has to offer. The Creative wellbeing area invited people of all ages to use their imagination to creative and explore arts and crafts, African drumming, circus skills, puppet making and children's construction. Partnering with The Barn, Corinium Museum and New Brewery Arts, we hosted Orpheus puppets and encouraged festival goers to explore the puppets, discuss how they were made and raise awareness of other community projects in the local area. As there is no parking on site, many festival attendees walked from near or far and had the opportunity to explore the stunning surroundings of Cirencester and encourages children to play with their friends and families to soak up the lively atmosphere.