Contents Section Title Page Executive Summary 3 One Background to the Project 6 Two Experience of Visitors 11 Three Experience of Event Organisers and Participants 19 Four Experience of the Vale of Glamorgan Council/CRC, the wider Community and other Stakeholders 27 Five Achieving Pilot Project Budgets and Outputs 32 Six Conclusions and Recommendations 35 This report was prepared by and
1.5 Selecting the Event Organisers An open call for organisers was made by CRC, with the opportunity advertised as well as circulated to CRC contacts, through social media and via networks. Expressions of Interest were initially invited and assessed on the basis of some core criteria, with those selected as possibilities invited to make a more detailed application. 17 Expressions of Interest were received of which 15 were invited by CRC to make an application. They covered a range of activities: Street food Painting Film production Climbing Shopping Music and picnic Cinema Craft event and workshops Slow Food Theatre After dinner speaking event Outdoor activities Beach Activities Only 6 of the 15 submitted a detailed application and, from this, four were selected. Reasons given for not submitting an application included that the timescale for delivery was too short, the time of year was not ideal and the idea was untried and therefore risky. 1.6 The programme of Pop Up Events Four events were finally selected, running over a period from early September to mid October. These were: Event Description Dates Organisers Crafts on the Coast Festival Crafts on the Coast Workshops: weaving (6th) Glass (7th) writing and textiles (8th) Art (9th) Open event with some 16 crafts stallholders and crafts demonstrations. Estimated attendance of 600. Bookable workshops with each of the four Coastal Communities Arts members. c80-90 people in total over four days with either two or three workshops per day Sunday 4th September, 9.30am – 5pm. Tuesday – Friday 6th – 9th September Coastal Communities Art – a group of four artists/ craftspeople Lost Lands Beach Cinema – The Lost Boys and The Goonies Ticketed cinema event in the walled garden, with a large screen, theatre sound, bar and food vendor Estimated audiences of about 200 per evening Friday 16th and Saturday 17th September, 6 Lost Cinema Slow Food Fest Open with some 18 artisan food and drink producers, as well as cooking, cider making and breadmaking demonstrations, and children’s activities. Estimated attendance of 600 Saturday 8th October, 10am – 4pm Slow Food South East Wales
Impact - looks at the positive (and possibly negative) changes resulting from the intervention and what the consequences of these are, in this case the intention to raise the profile of the Heritage Coast and its potential for economic activity The evaluation has been undertaken through various strands of activity: CRC have: Distributed online surveys to visitors to events, to find out where visitors are coming from and their experience of the event Asked visitors at events to fill out a very short ‘evaluation postcard’, to provide some immediate feedback whilst at the event Distributed links to online surveys to residents and local businesses in the vicinity of Dunraven Bay to find out what impact the events have had on them Distributed online surveys (via event organisers) to other participants at events (e.g. stallholders) to find out how the events worked for them Distributed online surveys to the event organisers (complementing interviews with them) Met and discussed the events with the landowner (Dunraven Estates), the Heritage Coast Park Rangers, other Council including CRC staff involved in supporting the events Sought feedback from other support personnel e.g. First Aiders, Security Staff Ash Futures have: Interviewed each of the event organisers to discuss the practicalities and logistics of developing and delivering the events, their wider experience of running the event and its business impacts for them Undertaken analysis of all the survey and interview findings, Drawn all the information together into this evaluation report to provide an objective evaluation of the pilot project 1.9 Layout of the Report This evaluation report now reviews the four events held and draws conclusions and recommendations from the experience of participants, visitors and other stakeholders, in terms of its success or otherwise as a pilot project, its potential impacts for the Heritage Coast’s businesses and communities, its value as visitor draw and the potential for developing from this pilot project.