Lowestoft First Light Festival: £200,000 grant for 24-hour arts and music event

The First Light Festival is due to feature illuminated artworks, similar to 2019's Pakefield Man, on the beach again in 2022

A 24-hour beach festival has been granted £200,000 so it can return next summer and help a seaside town recover after the Covid-19 lockdowns.

East Suffolk Council approved the sum for the First Light Festival in Lowestoft after the event had to be scrapped in 2020 and 2021.

The announcement comes weeks after it was revealed the town hoped to jointly host the UK Capital of Culture in 2025.

A council report said the festival had changed "perceptions of the town".

The inaugural First Light Festival in Lowestoft attracted thousands of visitors in 2019

The inaugural festival was held in 2019 to celebrate the summer solstice at Britain's most-easterly town and it attracted about 30,000 people, according to council figures.

The Conservative-run council's cabinet approved the money on Tuesday, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Cabinet member for economic development, Craig Rivett, said: "Clear of Covid restrictions, the beach full of visitors and residents alike, bigger and better than before - that's what we want to see."

He said it would have a "youth focus and the clear message of leaving no trace" [of litter].

Lowestoft was one of several sites recently visited by the anonymous guerrilla artist Banksy.

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The event was expected to cost about £414,000, with the remainder of the funding coming from earned income and grants.

The festival will once again feature live music and DJ sets, comedy, dance and theatre performances, and art and science activities.

Large illuminated artworks are being planned for the beach at night.

More than a third of festival attendees had never visited the town before the 2019 event, with 96% saying they would visit again, according to council research.

Co-organiser Wayne Hemingway (second from right) behind the decks of the silent disco in 2019 with, from left, Nathan X, Smoothgroove, Richard Haugh and Tallulah Goodtimes

The festival was co-created by designer Wayne Hemingway to help regenerate the town.

He said at the time it was hoped it might be a permanent fixture.