Great Yarmouth businesses worry about a lack of late summer events

A trapeze artist at the 2023 Out There festival in Great Yarmouth

Concerns have been voiced that a seaside town might struggle to attract visitors next autumn due to a lack of family events.

Great Yarmouth's Out There Festival has been moved to the spring and the Maritime Festival was last staged in 2019.

Tourist attractions in the town said they were already facing tough trading conditions.

Visit Great Yarmouth said the town still had plenty to offer.

"An events programme always goes through a state of change and flux, and we have got to find a way to make it work," said Asa Morrison, the chief executive of Visit Great Yarmouth.

"We've still got Heritage Open Days, the Eastern Festival of horseracing, the East Anglian Greyhound Derby, the Festival of Bowls and the Great Yarmouth Arts Festival in September."

Earlier this week, organisers of the Out There Festival, one of Europe's biggest outdoor circuses, announced that the event would now be held in the spring, instead of September.

Michael Cole's family runs Joyland Children's Fun Park on Great Yarmouth seafront

Michael Cole, whose family has run Joyland Children's Fun Park since 1949, said he decided to close the park earlier than usual this week after a difficult summer.

"The electricity prices have gone through the roof here, the wages have gone up, and the numbers of people are the same as last year but they aren't spending," he said.

"There were days here we weren't taking enough to cover half the wages."

Sebastian Robbins, 33, and his partner Abi Shepherd, 23, from Cambridge, are staying at a holiday park in Caister with their two toddlers.

They went to Great Yarmouth for a day out and said fewer events would make them think twice about visiting the town.

"I think it would [deter us] a little bit, as Joyland is closed now and it's dependent on weather, so it would affect it because we would have to go to Cromer or places like that just to get enough for the kids to do," Mr Robbins said.

"Events gives you more to do and a purpose to go out," Ms Sheppard added.

Holidaymakers Sebastian and Abi say Great Yarmouth is a good place to take children

Visit Great Yarmouth said it was working on facilitating more events and it hoped to release more details in December.