Tall Ships festival 'may feature fewer tall ships'

A festival celebrating traditional sailing ships may have fewer on display in the future.

Gloucester City Council's report on the Gloucester Tall Ships Festival, which made a loss of £117,000 last year, said the cost of getting the ships into the docks is "hard to justify" given their "limited cultural outcomes".

The report also said ships taking part would have to be retrofitted to comply with modern modern health and safety standards, which some may not be able to afford.

It also recommends giving organisers two years to stage the event, rather than the six months which happened in 2024.

The next festival is due to take place in 2027, to tie in with the 200th anniversary of the opening of Gloucester Docks.

Culture and leisure cabinet member Caroline Courtney, who presented the report to Gloucester City Council, said the 2024 event was a "huge endeavour on a very short timescale".

"Feedback from people who attended the event itself was generally quite positive. It contributed an estimated economic impact of an additional £337,000 to the local economy just over that weekend.

"However, it is clear the format of the event as a closed festival site with a heavy reliance on ticket income trying to cover the increasing high costs of putting on an event of this scale and the short lead time the team had to generate sponsorship income is not the format we would want to continue with," she added.

The report concluded the next event should be a more "expansive and imaginative".

"Rather than a single weekend, audiences may witness a series of visits from different ships over the year...this approach would enable greater participation, reduce production costs, and increase the likelihood of positive cultural and wellbeing outcomes," it said.

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