Family Activities at Vintage by the Sea

The environment

Efforts were made to reuse and remake artistic programming including developing the Peoples Band Stand for a second year and commissioning Caravanalogue using making practices to teach people about repairing and making sustainably. The Vintage fashion market promotes buying second hand clothing over new fast fashion. The festival as a whole looks to limit the use of generators and use clean energy where possible.

The local economy

Vintage by the Sea Festival generated over £2.3m for the local economy. 27% of visitors stayed overnight in Morecambe and 21% travelled in from outside of the Lancaster district. This suggests approx half our audience are local, and half are travelling into the area to experience the Festival. The average spend of visitors was £66.25, with overnight guests spending £165.33. 21% of visitors ‘hardly ever’ come to Morecambe and for 8%, it was their first time in the town. This shows that VBTS profiles Morecambe as a place to visit. 98.17% of audiences agree or strongly agree that VBTS highlights Morecambe as a tourist destination (85.84% answered Strongly Agree) “I brought my daughter and her partner and realised that we hadn't been to Morecambe for over 20 years but we used to visit when she was a child. We do regularly visit other seasides as I love being by the sea, but I had somehow forgotten about this one. We stayed in a fabulous apartment and had a lovely time so will definitely be back. I have been telling all my friends about it too and showing them the brochure.” “We live much closer to Blackpool so generally have a run out to Cleveleys or Lytham but we fancied a change. I haven’t been to Morecambe since I was a child and heard it had become very rundown however we were pleasantly surprised. We had a lovely day and vintage by the sea being on was an added bonus. We will definitely visit the town more often” VBTS supports visitation to local businesses and venues. When asked ‘What else did you do while you were in Morecambe’, we had the following responses: 44.93% said the shopped (an increase from 39.34% in 2023) 70.05% said they got something to eat/drink (an increase from 61.03% in 2023) 28.02% visited a venue which was not part of the festival (an increase from 23.63% in 2023) Not only do these results indicate the boost to the local economy that VBTS brings, it also shows that the number of people making use of local amenities is increasing during the Festival year on year. The Festival inspired 10 fringe events in Morecambe across the weekend, in bars, cafes and events venues. The community has embraced ownership of the festival, feeling a strong sense of pride and connection to the event.

Arts, culture & heritage

During the festival weekend, heritage venues such as Morecambe Winter Gardens (7295) and Morecambe Platform (10,000) record numbers of visitors during Vintage by the Sea Festival weekend. Using common themes of the vintage decades the artistic programme of music, theatre, dance, creative workshops and performances bring multiple generations of people together to share and create memories. Vintage by the Sea employs over 140 freelance artists, producers, stage managers, performers and musicians to create this truly celebratory festival. This brings the creative community together working together towards common goals and also provides paid opportunities for early career artists to work in this field. Vintage by the Sea continued to push artistic ambition, focusing on high-quality performance & participation activities to continue introducing audiences to new cultural experiences. For the 2024, Vintage by the Sea: Commissioned 24 artists/workshop facilitators Programmes 12 music performances, with 8 of these being new for 2024 Curated 33 DJs across 3 outdoor venues Scheduled 40 street theatre sets/pop-up performance/dance lessons (plus People’s Bandstand Programme which included interactive games, performance & Open Mic) The programme also featured 3 x artistic commissions: Expanding on People’s Bandstand with Morecambe-based Good Things Collective, creating a joyful, inclusive space to foster moments of community. Brought a new ‘venue’ into Festival footprint & engaging new audience at the Skatepark with arts collective Jwllrs, exploring the history of Morecambe’s 20-year-old skatepark, and exploring the history of skate culture. Developed a new immersive 80s workshop space with Bristol-based Let’s Make Art, taking inspiration from the decade’s fashion, music and design.

Activity, health and leisure

Using The Indices of Multiple Deprivation framework, we can see that 51% of audiences were from the most deprived areas of the UK, with 16% being from IMD 1 which is typically the hardest group for arts and culture events to engage with. 21% of people who attended Vintage By The Sea identified as being disabled in some way, 77% answered that they were not disabled and 2% preferred not to say. These demographics mirror those of the UK and local demographics, showing that Vintage By The Sea is engaging those who may have a disability. 18% of visitor survey respondents took part in a dance class and 14% took part in a workshop. If extrapolated to the audience total, we can understand that 14,400 took part in dance classes and/or workshops. One audience member’s favourite moment of the Festival was “Trying break dancing and the Bollywood style dancing at aged 74 !” and another responded “The whole event really showcasing culture and nostalgia. There was something for everyone and all ages I liked the music and dancing.”