pr & INTERIM MARKETING consultancy

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ABOUT

The Bath Festival is a multi-arts festival held in May with over 120 events that include internationally acclaimed musicians, celebrated authors, poets and storytellers in some of Bath’s most historic buildings. In 2018, Bath Festivals (the umbrella company) celebrated its 70th anniversary, and The Bath Festival went from a 10 day festival to 17 days, with over 170 events across the city of Bath. This year also saw the launch of The Bath Festival Finale on the Rec, a two-day festival with big names such as Paloma Faith (pictured above), Midge Ure, Imelda May, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Alison Moyet and Robert Plant, on the closing weekend.

Each year, The Bath Festival kicks off with Bath's biggest night of free music, known as ‘Party in the City’. Over 20,000 people visit the city to see over 2,000 performers in 34+ venues and 3 outdoor arenas. All the performers volunteer their time, the venues waiver their hire costs and volunteers manage the entire evening.

CAMPAIGN

This contract spanned over three years and included heading up the PR department, and acting as interim Head of Marketing. During this period, the original literature festival and music festival came together as one, and Bath Festivals launched the Finale on the Rec weekend as a legacy for its 70th anniversary. Responsibilities included all aspects of PR, engaging with a large database of ticket-buyers via newsletters, commissioning festival videos, social media coverage at festivals, city dressing, and engaging local businesses via influencer trips.

In 2018, audiences at The Bath Festival increased in 2017 by 76% to 38,000, with 22,000 attending free events. 12,000 day and weekend tickets were sold for the Finale on the Rec weekend with audiences of nearly 9,000 on both days.

The Bath BID monitoring of footfall data measured an increase in high street footfall of 39% across the festival finale weekend compared to the same weekend in 2017. There was a 15% increase in high street footfall on Bath’s biggest night of free music – Party in the City.