Council funding for the annual Tramlines music festival weekend hit a record low in 2014, it has been revealed.
Total Tramlines funding and costs by the council this year amounted to £12,264, around a tenth of the total contributed to the festival in 2011. The news comes as early bird tickets for next year’s festival, the seventh to be held, have gone on sale to the general public.
Sheffield City council previously announced they would stop directly contributing to the running of the event, which ceased to be free of charge in 2013, but still provide for policing and infrastructure in the city centre on the weekend.
Councillor Isobel Bowler, Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Leisure at Sheffield City Council, said: “Tramlines has always been a major part of our events calendar in Sheffield and we have worked with the event organisers and our partners from day one to ensure it is a success. “
“It was always the intention of Tramlines organisers to rely less and less on local authority support as the festival grew. “
Scott Williams, editor of music festival promotion site Efestivals, said that such cuts were part of a central government attack on community festivals under the banner of austerity, and that many similar events across the country have also been forced to find commercial sources of revenue.
From 2011 to 2014, funding on infrastructure fell from £101,300 to £2,264, and this year the council stopped paying running fees to the festival organisers altogether. Policing costs in 2014 amounted to £10,000, down from £12,000 the year before.
Headliners for this year’s Tramlines festival, which has taken place in Sheffield every year since its foundation in 2009, included Katy B, Public Enemy and The Cribs.
benedict tetzlaff - deas. 