Cost of Godiva Festival tickets 'could rise' amid council cuts

The three-day Godiva Festival was held at War Memorial Park earlier this year

Coventry's Godiva Festival will likely become "more commercially focused" and command higher ticket prices if planned council cuts go ahead, a report claims.

The local authority is proposing to stop all direct funding to the family festival in two years' time, saving £300,000 per year.

But some members argue Godiva must stay with the council, describing the event as a "fundamental part of Coventry".

It comes as the council faces a £30m budget shortfall for the next year.

The three-day Godiva Festival attracts about 69,000 people at War Memorial Park each year.

Proposals for the event's costs to be met elsewhere are revealed in papers for a council meeting next Tuesday.

Coventry City Council is forecasting a £30m budget shortfall for the next financial year

"The continuing financial pressures on the council to achieve savings has resulted in this proposal being formulated, to remove all direct council funding for the Godiva Festival by 2025/26," an Equality Impact Assessment said.

"The emphasis will likely shift from a community-oriented event to a narrower, more commercially focused one."

The report said it was "likely" that the audience would reduce and that opportunities for local communities and artists to participate would also decrease.

"In the absence of a council subsidy, ticket prices would significantly increase as the primary source of revenue for the event," it added.

Council officer Phil Helm said the event had cost "over a million" per year to hold, with some income received from via pricing and contracts to "provide food and drink and things like that".

"But there is still a council subsidy of about £300,000.

"It's a really good event, a marquee event for the city, and we'd like to think that we could attract some sponsorship for that," he added. "So we'll certainly go down those lines first, but clearly pricing would have to be part of the equation."

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.