Godiva Festival to get £330k council cash boost

A music festival is set to get a £330,000 council cash injection, despite its annual funding being cut last year.

Leaders said they wanted to ensure the popular Coventry City Council-run Godiva Festival is affordable and keeps operating.

The money is due to be approved on Tuesday, and is part of a one-off £400,000 boost for city events, put forward by the authority in its final plans.

The investment has been made possible through a boost in government funding for the council.

The council overspent on last year's festival, with a £200,000 deficit blamed on lower ticket sales and soaring costs.

Before last year's event, councillors agreed to axe a yearly £300,000 council subsidy for it, which was due to start in the 2025-26 financial year, as part of a £30m savings plan.

Labour councillor Richard Brown, cabinet member for finance, said the festival's total cost was more than £1m, and the council had gradually reduced its input over the years.

"If the question is: 'Will we continue to look for sponsorship to eat into that £300k?', yes we will," he said.

"But I am conscious that I think it's something like 60-70% of people that go to the Godiva [festival] are from Coventry."

He added the authority would like to keep the festival going and would continue to see if they could drive costs down.

The authority defended its plans to continue running the festival, despite plans to move four libraries into other buildings, as part of efforts to save £3m per year.

Hundreds signed petitions calling for the libraries to be saved.

The council's Labour leader, George Duggins said it was about "balancing things" and the council did not want to see Godiva festival not take place.

He said the plans for libraries were about using resources in the best way and stressed that they would be moved, not closed.

"We're not decimating the library service, that's not fair to say. We are moving libraries and communities have had their say on that."

"In some instances that's not popular, but we have to make the best use of resources that we can.

"We've always said that it's not about buildings, it's about service delivery, and that is what those proposals are."

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