The 40th Anniversary Harbour Festival has now been and gone for 2011.

We’ve gasped at the trapeze acts at the Castle Park circus stage, or applauded our favourite band at one of the many music stages.  We’ve had our fill of continental food or local drink, and danced like there’s no tomorrow.  We’ve caught up with old friends and made some new ones, and we’ve seen more boats and water-borne activity than you could shake a stick at.

We hope you enjoyed the festival and would ask that you spare a few minutes to complete our feedback survey

Over 250,000 people are estimated to have attended this year.  The number of residents and visitors it attracts to the city brings great financial benefit to the economy as well as the cultural / social benefits of holding a  festival.  The reductions in council funding from government means we will have less money to spend organising the festival in the future and so there will need to be some changes.  We will also need to look at fund raising for the festival and issues such as paid-for fringe and evening events – we saw these being extended this year and many of them were really popular.  The 2011 festival was achieved through partnership working with businesses and the city’s cultural and community organisations – we’ll need to develop our joint-working to an even greater extent in future festivals:

We’re looking for your feedback from the 2011 festival:

• What did you think of it?
• What did you like most?
• What lessons can we learn for the future?
• What ideas do you have for boosting fund-raising for the festival?
• How could income from the festival be increased to help cover its costs?

We’re also hoping to better understand the economic benefits and have included a few questions in the survey about this.

Please give us feedback by completing the survey  and then join in the  public conversation by leaving a comment below. 

Your responses will be invaluable in planning future festivals!

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