How council-funded Bingley Music Live became a blueprint for urban festivals

Bradford Council never set out to make a full-blown music festival, but this event is now one of the calender highlights of the year with a lineup to rival nearby Leeds

It started 27 years ago and now welcomes more than 15,000 people over the last weekend in August (Photography by Bradford Council)

At the end of summer in 1991, Bradford Council decided to stage a free music event in Myrtle Park in Bingley. It was a fairly low-key event, with a portable stage not much bigger than the park’s bandstand. The lineup was comprised of mainly tribute acts.

Fast forward to 2018, and Bingley Music Live, as the event evolved into, is preparing for its biggest three-day festival yet, on the weekend of Friday 31 August. This time the roster is a little more impressive: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Jake Bugg, Public Image Ltd, Shed Seven, former Spice Girl Melanie C… and all on a stage that wouldn’t be out of place at one of the summer’s big-name festivals.

But, so what? Festivals are big business in the UK, and the summer calendar is stuffed with internationally-renowned acts zipping between fields across the country. Just down the road from Bradford, the Leeds Festival is twinned with its more venerable cousin Reading, and together they form the apex of the festival pyramid with old-stager Glastonbury (when it’s not having a fallow year, like this summer).

But also on the calendar is Latitude, the Isle of Wight Festival, RiZE (formerly the V Festival), Wireless, Creamfields, BBC Music’s Big Weekend, Bestival… it seems that no matter where you are in the country, sling a 12in picture disc like a frisbee any time over the summer and you’re almost certain to hit a music superstar on the head.

But what makes Bingley Music Live a slightly different beast is that just like the inaugural Music at Myrtle event in 1991, it is still run by the local authority. No longer free, of course, because you don’t get Noel Gallagher out of bed on the sort of money you can make up by adding a few quid on the council tax bills. But value for money certainly, compared to the big commercial festivals, and certainly pulling its weight in the ring with many of them.

The main stage at Music at Myrtle in 1991, before it became Bingley Music Live (Bradford Council)

A spokesperson for Bradford Council said that when Music at Myrtle was set up in 1991, nobody really expected that it would become the major player it is now. She says: “When we held our first small free concert few could have envisaged that the festival would grow to attract such big names as Pet Shop Boys, Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, Chic and Nile Rogers, All Saints, Jess Glynne and James who have all played over recent years.”

The key, though, is that Bingley Music Live has grown organically. Bradford Council never set out to make a full-blown festival, it expanded a little bit year by year. She adds: “Although it has come a long way from its humble beginnings and it is unusual for a council to be involved in such a big festival we have grown it gradually and now it sees 15,000 people a day flock to the town for festival weekend.”

In its early years, Music at Myrtle was split into themed days, with old rockers such as Bradford’s own Smokie on the bill, newer bands for the younger audience, and jazz. In 1998 Bradford Council partnered with local radio station Pulse to make the event a two-day festival, with Pulse using their clout and contacts book to bring in bigger names such as Liberty X, McFly, Rachel Stevens and another Bradford boy-done-good, Gareth Gates.

That continued into the 2000s, until what was then billed as the Party in the Park hit its first major bump in the road. In February 2007, the event was summarily cancelled. Rising costs and declining audiences were blamed, and the Pulse’s station director, Tony Wilkinson, told the local paper, Telegraph and Argus, that support from the music industry for such small festivals was on the wane. He said that the record labels did not have “as many artists out on promotional tours to provide a top class running order”.


 Despite its small size, the festival has attracted larger, mainstream acts such as Maximo Park
 (Bradford Council)

What nobody envisaged in 2007, though, was that the music industry was in the throes of a massive shakeup. Downloading and streaming of music was in its infancy then, and music acts still made the majority of their money from physical album and single sales. However, a decade on, that situation is reversed; nowadays it’s the touring of live shows and pounding the festival beat that earns pop and rock bands a crust.

It would be nice to think that Bradford Council was playing something of a blinder back in 2007, but the chances are that it was pure serendipity. Either way, within a couple of months of the announcement that the Myrtle Park festival was dead, it rose from the ashes.

The original plan was to scale back on the A-listers and give more of a platform to unknown, local bands. The rescue package had been put together wholly by Bradford Council, and they were obviously mindful of the budgetary restrictions of putting on a big festival but still wanting to provide residents with a music event of some description.

Indeed, it was the residents of Bingley in particular who lobbied the council to save the festival in some form. This was at a time when the financial crisis was just bubbling over, and it’s fair to say that Bradford had been hit harder than most cities. Neighbouring Leeds had stolen a march on city centre development and by the mid-2000s had a thriving retail and leisure sector that put it in a stronger position to weather the credit crunch.

The three-day festival now has acts that aren’t too far removed from its neighbouring Leeds (Bradford Council)

Before the financial collapse, Bradford had been on the up as well. Large swathes of the city centre had been demolished to make way for a brand new shopping centre built by Westfield. The majority of the work on taking down the tired, old buildings began in 2004, but by 2007 everything had stalled, leaving Bradford with an infamous hole in the ground that made it look as though it was ground zero of a meteor strike. It wasn’t until 2015 that the centre was completed and opened… and, to be fair, did help to kickstart a much-needed revitalisation of Bradford.

So it was understandable in that atmosphere in 2007 that people wanted some form of entertainment, and Bingley Music Live was it. That year’s festival was indeed pared down, but still attracted some recognisable names – Bruce Foxton’s post-Paul Weller “From The Jam” outfit, the Charlatans, the Bluetones. The following year brought the Happy Mondays, Echo and the Bunnymen, and local heroes Terrorvision.

By the time the first headliners the Charlatans returned in 2012, the festival had added a third day on the Friday, and the festival was really on an upward curve.

But can a local authority really justify the cost? There are partners of course, including Ticketline, Mercure Hotels and Carlsberg. But surely it doesn’t make any money?

According to a Bradford Council reply to a freedom of information request last month asking for income and expenditure on Bingley Music Live over the past three years, in 2015 there was income of £946,000 against just over £1m in costs. In 2016 income was down at £822,000 against very similar costs, but last year, with costs standing at £1.15m, there was gross income of £1.3m… leaving a net surplus of £222,000.

Nile Rogers took to the stage in 2013 (Bradford Council)

Having attended the event last year, those figure’s aren’t surprising. It was packed and money was flowing over the bars and food concessions. It’s also a very family-oriented event. And with ticket sales ensuring 15,000 come through the gates every day this year – which the coup of booking Noel Gallagher has certainly helped with – it looks likely that Bingley Music Live is on an upward trend.

Being in the middle of one of the Bradford district’s big towns as well, rather than in splendid isolation on a field somewhere in Hampshire, there are extra benefits. My council spokesperson says: “The event is a big thing for Bingley’s businesses, with its many excellent pubs, bars, shops and places to eat all busy with people for the full weekend. The festival is also embraced by the local Bradford and Bingley Sports Club who provide camping for festivalgoers on their fields.”

While Bingley Music Live might be unusual in being local authority-run, its model of being an “urban festival” is one that is becoming increasingly popular… and can pay dividends for local economies.

Journalist Claude Lynch, writing in CityMetric earlier this year, said that while the big, camp-out-all-weekend festivals were declining, smaller, urban festivals were thriving… and possibly because of a sense of community. He wrote: “Multiple studies into the dynamics and economics of festivals make similar arguments about how to drive ‘re-patronising’ – in other words, how to make festivalgoers want to come back next year. Evidence suggests that ‘social identification’ – having something in common with other festivalgoers – is often just as important as the quality of the music or the food. Festivals can capitalise on this boon of social identification by offering a self-contained event designed with both locals and tourists in mind. Locals are more likely to patronise events that emphasise community spirit; while tourists are enthused by events that symbolise and epitomise the local culture.”

From very humble beginnings 27 years ago, Bingley Music Live has survived and thrived, often against the odds, and when international superstar Noel Gallagher takes the stage in a couple of weeks’ time, it will be the culmination of the dogged determination that gets things done in this part of the world… and looks like providing the template for the future of live music.

For more information go to bingleymusiclive.com