Written evidence submitted by the Manchester City Council
Executive Summary
The Manchester Events Commission (MEC), established by Manchester City Council in 2023, represents a strategic shift in how the city-region approaches major events. This submission to the DCMS Select Committee Inquiry outlines Manchester’s proactive, collaborative, and impact-driven model for leveraging major events to stimulate economic growth, cultural vibrancy, and international profile.
Strategic Context
Manchester aims to be a top 20 European destination by 2030, using major events as a catalyst for tourism, investment, and community engagement. The MEC unites public and private stakeholders—including Marketing Manchester, GMCA, TfGM, and Manchester Airport—to coordinate event acquisition, funding, and delivery.
Economic & Social Impact
Major events have generated substantial returns:
Events also drive community benefits, such as grassroots funding, increased sports participation, and regional hotel occupancy boosts. The Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID), funded through the visitor levy, provides a locally controlled and sustainable funding stream that supports both the bidding and delivery of major events. This mechanism ensures strategic alignment with Manchester’s priorities and enables the city to reinvest in its visitor economy and cultural infrastructure.
Challenges
The sector faces:
Policy Recommendations
Legislative Considerations
Martyn’s Law is welcomed for public safety but requires proportionate support for smaller venues. A review of highways legislation is also recommended to better support street-based events.
Conclusion
Manchester’s model demonstrates the power of strategic collaboration, long-term planning, and local empowerment in delivering high-impact events. A national framework that reflects regional strengths and priorities is essential to unlock the full potential of the UK’s major events sector.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The UK events industry’s unprecedented challenges in recent years have been well documented; navigating the pandemic and economic downturn, adjusting to geopolitical shocks, the reset of fiscal policy levers that impact on daily livelihoods and new legislative demands that redefining established practices; operating in a recovering marketplace impacted by staff shortages, supply-chain constraints and escalating costs; and responding to evolving consumer behaviours and expectations that are reframing how major event rights holders and organisers must approach the future.
1.2 The resilience, adaptability and innovation that is inherent in the event industry has ensured that the major events sector is now poised to be able to capitalise on a new phase of growth. To support the DCMS Select Committee inquiry, Manchester City Council and Marketing Manchester can provide insight on the sector and have a pivotal role to play in helping set the strategic agenda for the next decade and beyond. Notwithstanding our regulatory licensing and planning functions, we are an important enabler of major events, utilising the relevant levers at our disposal to maximise the opportunities to use major events to position and profile the city in support of national, regional and local agendas.
1.3 Manchester City Council can be a strategic partner, funder, commissioner, licensor, facilitator and producer of major events. We work alongside strategic funding partners, commercial promoters and event organisers, national governing bodies and international federations, creative practitioners, community organisations and sponsors – as well as our collaborative event multi-agency partners – to create a supportive environment that nurtures growth across the sector and ensures that we can realise the potential to capture the economic, social, cultural, sporting, health and well-being and media profile benefits that major events can deliver.
1.4 Manchester has a strong reputation as a conference destination and regularly hosts major music and sporting events, often managing the logistics of having over 200,000 visitors’ multiple events in our venues in a single day – integrating the travel and transport, security, compliance and operational management functions to support a coordinated delivery approach. This, alongside our curated programme of annual major events, has helped develop a reputation of the city being an event friendly destination and continues to attract the interest of major event property owners and rights holders, which in turn should position Manchester at the heart of the future UK Events offer.
2.0 Background – Strategic Alignment
2.1 We want to make Manchester and Greater Manchester a great place to visit, invest and study, with thriving businesses which are UK and world leading. The GM Local Industrial Strategy, Greater Manchester Strategy and GM Economic vision set out the city-region’s priorities to build a Greater Manchester and in turn a Greater Britain. Building on our frontier sector strengths.
2.2 Key regional and city strategies prioritise major events as a key component in how we want to shape our city for the future; attracting and delivering major events to grow the visitor economy and be the most visited city-region outside of London and a top 20 European destination by 2030 (GM Visitor Economy Strategy 2025 – 30) ; bringing world-class sporting and cultural events to the city further developing our unique spirit and creativity (Our Manchester Strategy (2025 – 35); ensuring that our cultural offer is on a par with our international peer cities with an exciting major events programme and campaigns to attract visitors and promote the city (Always, Everywhere: Manchester's Cultural Ambition 2024 – 2034) and will be carried through in the new Nighttime Economy strategy currently in development.
2.3 Manchester is aiming to be a top twenty city and so to deliver against the stretch targets on visitor numbers, build the international profile of the visitors and realise the visitor economy impacts, we have to keep giving reasons for people to look at Manchester and major events can be both the hook for the conversation – creating a reason for visitors to come and experience us - and a positioning tool to showcase the sectors that help differentiate Manchester’s offer in the global marketplace.
2.4 The UK Government states that it recognises the importance and value of hosting major events and is determined to continue to build on the UK’s hard-earned reputation for hosting major events, which has been on a global journey of renaissance following the successful hosting of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester 2002. Since 2002, the UK has developed an enviable reputation for staging some of the most successful major events and the UK government continues to recognise the value to increase our global standing, demonstrating that the UK is open, outward-looking and confident on the world stage.
2.5 It is also acknowledged that there is increasing global competition to bid for and secure major international events, with countries around the world recognising the economic and social opportunities these events bring. In addition, domestically an internal bidding process between the home nations, regions and cities has become the norm in advance of competing to attract high-profile events.
2.6 Greater Manchester has one of the strongest major events innovation eco-systems in the UK and globally, enabled by the quality and breadth of our sector leaders in culture, media and sport, but there are elements missing and parts that need to be better aligned to maximise the opportunities for the region. Furthermore, all elements need further stimulation to build an ecosystem that can drive productivity, local job creation, and compete for investment globally.
2.7 The City Council’s strategic approach to major events has to date been successful in creating a broad annual calendar of events that showcased the vibrancy of the city and some of the unique characteristics of the city region. However, Manchester’s approach was reactive to major event opportunities and to be more competitive and deliver better value for money, Manchester identified that it needed to be more proactive in identifying and prioritising the major event targets that would be more effectively aligned to our wider economic, social, sporting and cultural outcomes – and support the ambitions of our national partners and the UK Government.
2.8 As the lead public sector investors in major events in the region, Manchester City Council and Marketing Manchester undertook a best practice review of successful event cities on the global stage (incl. Auckland, Vancouver, Glasgow, Melbourne, New York and Sydney). This has highlighted the importance of city leadership, clarity of ambition and strong governance as well as the need to establish a strong collaborative partnership mechanism, and identified that successful event cities shared a number of key characteristics that shaped their investment decisions:
• Recognition that major events remain heavily reliant on public sector funding and the need to have a credible planned investment fund aligned to national and regional funding to secure and activate major events, as well as governance arrangements with key regional and national partners to oversee this.
• Alignment is made with regional and national actors to build a collective funding pot and secure external funding.
• Resources are pooled to reduce costs, centrally coordinate a city region’s event strategy and maintain competitiveness.
• A wide range of alternative funding sources and capacity building strategies are utilised including the commercialization of event expertise and building match-funding and value-in-kind propositions.
2.9 To align Manchester with global best practice in major events planning and strategy, the City Council established a collaborative partnership mechanism – the Manchester Event Commission (MEC) - with key strategic partners including Marketing Manchester, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Transport for Greater Manchester, Manchester Airport and the Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID), putting in place a collaborative partnership board that provides the appropriate leadership, oversight and governance arrangements to ensure strategic direction is in place for the joint commissioning of major events in Manchester. The introduction of the Manchester Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID), funded through the city’s visitor levy, has been instrumental in enabling Manchester to both bid for and deliver major events. As a core contributor to the Manchester Events Commission’s combined investment fund, ABID ensures that the accommodation sector—one of the primary beneficiaries of increased visitation—plays an active role in supporting the city’s strategic ambitions. Crucially, the local control of these funds allows Manchester to align investment with its long-term priorities, enabling agile, place-based decision-making that maximises economic, cultural, and social impact across the city-region.
2.10 The MEC provides a strengthened platform on which the City can develop its long-term strategic planning and leverage increased resources for major events that will enable accelerated investment to secure, acquire and develop signature sporting, cultural and business and conference events of national and international significance.
3.0 Context - Major Events in Manchester
3.1 Since the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester has been using major events to invite the world to the city and wider region. Manchester has hosted world, European and national sports events, cultural events of international status and the city’s venues and festivals have been headlined by the biggest music artists on the global stage. Rights holders and event organisers are still coming back, safe in the knowledge that the city region has an established event ecosystem that can help them produce and support at scale with an audience and visitor base for events that is only rivalled in the UK by London. We have worked to ensure that our approach to attracting major events is responsive to opportunities and enhances the ability of the city region to capitalise and fully maximise the benefits.
3.2 The pandemic and the subsequent and ongoing economic impact accelerated and intensified the pace of change in the event sector so Manchester working with Greater Manchester re-focused to be ambitious to remain relevant on the world stage. Prior to the pandemic in 2019, tourism contributed £9.5 billion to the Greater Manchester economy, sustaining over 102,500 FTE’s jobs. This was forecast at the time to grow to £10.6billion and 107,000 FTE’s by 2025. Major Events remain one of the most important tools that can help to stimulate tourism and generate profile for Greater Manchester, whilst rebuilding the region’s visitor economy to beyond the pre-pandemic values.
3.3 Creating enduring, innovative and fit-for-purpose events takes more than one individual body or leader; collectively as a city-region and with pooled resource and commitment we have put in place an intervention that sets out or intent and ambition and provides measurable, shared outcomes that enable us to make progress against its stated aspiration to be a “world class visitor hub for business and leisure tourism’, sustainably increasing the value and volume of visitors to the city and city-region and improving the our offer, ensuring that the economic impact and benefits are felt across the whole of Greater Manchester.
3.4 The GM International Strategy 2022 – 2025 recognised the value and volume of national and international visitors, conferences and events to the city region and identified that the need to target longer term growth in the regions events and conference sector to remain competitive in both the leisure and business tourism markets. Collaboration and coordination across our hospitality, culture, music, leisure, business, and sport offer are key to achieving this.
3.5 It is recognised that much of the tourism product is focussed within the core of the city-region, a recent study by Hatch estimated that around two thirds of all the jobs supported by the visitor economy are taken up by people living outside Manchester and Salford. Furthermore, it is identified that Hotel occupancy increases across GM if there are big events in the city. The ‘ripple effect’ of hosting major events, concerts, conferences etc is felt by accommodation operators beyond the city centre, as demand outstrips supply and business gets displaced. Marketing Manchester note an increase of up to 5% in additional occupancy levels across GM when there have been large events in Manchester City Centre.
3.6 The GMCA commissioned UK Music Greater Manchester Music review published in 2019 identified that the live music audience of Greater Manchester accounted for 1.9 million attendees, generating £169 million in music tourism for the region. In 2022, a Manchester City Council commissioned report of the music economy identified that the total economic impact of Greater Manchester’s music ecosystem between 2019-2020 was £469 million in Gross Value Added (GVA) and 11,270 FTE jobs (FTEs). This comprised a total economic impact of £390 million in GVA and 9,590 FTEs from the music sector, £63 million in GVA and 1,340 FTEs from music tourism and £16 million in GVA and 340 FTEs from the night-time economy.
3.7 Conferences and business events are a further hugely important sector to GM, worth £862million to the regional economy. In 2022/23 the Manchester Convention Bureau won 28 new bids securing an estimated £42.8m in future economic impact and submitted 73 bids with a potential economic impact of £130m and an estimated 55,815 delegates. The latest sector research - ‘UK Conference and Meeting Survey 2023’ (UKCAMS) - provides clear evidence of a strong recovery to pre-pandemic levels and significant opportunities to capitalise on securing future events through the existing channels and targeting potential growth through the slower recovering international market if the right level of support can be directed.
3.8 Alongside the music and business conference sector, sport, in particular football, continues to be an engine of growth. Whilst the strength of the attraction of both Manchester City and Manchester United is not underestimated and continues to grow the day visitor and overnight stay economy – projected to be at least double the reported £330m GVA from 10 years ago. An Ernest and Young report in 2022, highlighted that Manchester’s two Premier League football clubs generated £1.1bn for Greater Manchester and supported 21,000 jobs. Alongside the expanding fanbase and global profile that the two iconic clubs now provide, the stadia are increasingly assets that crossover into the live music sector and other events in the summer with the Etihad, Emirates Old Trafford, Old Trafford and AJ Bell hosting high profile events outside their core business function.
3.9 Delivering impact and planning for legacy has been a fundamental pillar of the approach, ensuring that residents feel connected to events and that opportunities to be more active remain post-event. Benefits to major sport events extends across the city-region and recent examples such as Cricket World Cup 2019 illustrate the way in which multiple partners can cooperate to deliver significant facility improvements and community engagement, targeted in areas of deprivation and reducing inequality in access to facilities. The ten GM LA’s along with GMCA, Lancashire Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board and Cheshire Cricket Board continue to deliver a 10-point plan, including 30 renovation projects at grassroots cricket clubs across 10 priority areas in GM.
3.10 There are several examples that showcase the impact and benefits of securing major events across the city-region. The examples below showcase that whilst paid for major events and festivals will continue to be a key driver of growth, there are a myriad of events that require national and regional support and investment to attract, secure and to develop, but can leverage significant benefits both through the event and through the legacy outcomes.
3.10.1 Cricket World Cup 2019
3.10.2 Tour of Britain Cycling 2019 (Men’s):
3.10.3 UEFA Women’s Euro 2022
3.11 The City Council’s strategic approach to major events had to date been successful in creating a broad annual calendar of events that showcased the vibrancy of the city and some of the unique characteristics of the city region. However, Manchester’s approach had become reactive to major event opportunities and to be more competitive and deliver better value for money, Manchester identified that it needed to be more proactive in identifying and prioritising the major event targets that would be more effectively aligned to our wider economic, social, sporting and cultural outcomes – and support the ambitions of our national partners and the UK Government.
4.0 Reset 1 - Major Events Strategy
4.1 Manchester City Council adopted the regions only Major Events Strategy in 2019, which set out a vision “To be an Eventful City” with a focus on developing a diverse, balanced and benefits-driven events portfolio which would:
4.2 The Event Strategy identified how Manchester City Council would re-purpose funding to support Events and Festivals, differentiating investment between:
4.3 Events built around the city’s cultural, sport and place assets are more important than ever in rebuilding the Greater Manchester offer following the impact of the pandemic. The existing strength of the sports facilities and the culture and recreation assets (parks and licensed open spaces, museums, performing arts venues and stadia) have been augmented with the realisation of investment in Aviva Studios, the Co-Op Live Arena, Mayfield, the redevelopment of publics squares, as well as investment to upgrade the National Cycling Centre and Manchester Aquatics Centre, increased capacity at the Ethiad Stadium plus new and improved facilities across GM, including Emirates Old Trafford, the AJ Bell Stadium, the Leigh Sports Village and smaller and emerging privately owned venues such as the Graystone Action Sports Centre in Salford.
4.4 The growing portfolio of national institutions and agencies that have made a home in the city region include DCMS, Arts Council, nine sport national governing bodies including British Cycling and GB Taekwondo, plus one International Sport Federation in World Netball, with World Para Athletics and World Para Swim earmarked to move to the region. This provides an opportunity to reset the events and festivals offer so that it can effectively contribute to maximising the value of these assets and redefines how Greater Manchester is positioned and profiled.
5.0 Reset 2 – Manchester Events Commission
5.1 Up to 2023, the region has been mostly reactive to major events opportunities and has engaged in a fairly ad-hoc approach to how it pulls together the assessment and response to major event bid opportunities or to identifying what future events it should be targeting. The Eurovision 2023 bid process highlighted the over-reliance on creating a single focus project team drawn from existing resources to respond to an individual opportunity in short timescales. Whilst there are some shared bidding functions in place between Manchester City Council and Marketing Manchester, there is scope to expand the collective approach that needs to be taken to benefit Greater Manchester and ensure we are capitalising on future opportunities aligned with the strategic ambition.
5.2 In December 2023, Manchester City Council’s Executive agreed to establish an Event Commission to provide the mechanism for acquiring, investing, developing and leveraging major events by strengthening collaboration between public and private sector partners. This has added value to the whole region facilitating long term strategic planning, increased resources for events that enable accelerated investment to secure, acquire and develop signature sporting and cultural events of national and international significance.
5.3 Establishing the Major Events Commission Board with representation from key funding partners and stakeholders has ensured that there is a sector wide, long-term focus on developing the approach and bringing new events to the city-region. It has:
5.4 To achieve the ambitions and to develop a distinctive programme, the Events Commission has built on existing strengths and focuses on the ecosystems with the greatest growth potential to accelerate both economic and social benefit, as follows:
5.5 With the ability to collectively capitalise on key industry and individual sector insight and ensure that there are strong relationships with external funding bodies and decision makers, the Manchester Event Commission has accelerated the delivery of the Event Strategy by:
5.6 The approach developed has strengthened collaboration between the public and private sector partners in Manchester and has provided a viable mechanism for acquiring, investing, developing and leveraging major events to Manchester with a focus on:
5.7 Extensive cross sector consultation and research was undertaken to establish the first draft of a Major Events Pipeline and Events Evaluation Framework for sport, music, culture, broadcast and business events. This Pipeline is an ongoing process and identifies major event properties that the city could bid to host, including multi-city Mega-Event opportunities and potential hybrid and homegrown events for future development.
5.8 Since establishing the Manchester Event Commission, the City has facilitated major international events including:
…. and has secured:
…. and is assisting UK Sport to bring the Tour De France Femmes to the UK in 2027 and will support UK&I 2028 to deliver extraordinary match-day experiences for visitors from across the world as a Host City for the UEFA Euros 2028.
5.11 Of equal importance in this developing portfolio of major event properties for the city is how the MEC supports commercial event operators to deliver against the same vison and how the city recognises their importance in the overall Manchester offer and how they can be the catalyst to deliver wider economic, social and media profile benefits.
5.12 In the summer of 2025, Manchester hosted 5 nights of the Oasis Live’25 concert series in Heaton Park, attracting over 340,000 attendees – 80% originating from outside Greater Manchester – and driving an estimated economic impact of £75m+. Across the 3 month summer period, an estimated 1.3m visitors will have attended major music festivals and events in Manchester’s parks, public spaces and venues in the city including Parklife Festival, Oasis Live’25, Sounds of the City at Castlefield, Live From Wythenshawe Park, arena scale concerts at Co-op Live and the AO Arena, gigs at 27 live music venues in the city and live music programming at over 100 other venues in the city and across major community and cultural events including Caribbean Carnival, Manchester Day, Manchester International Festival and Manchester Pride.
5.13 To support the live music driven summer programme, the City Council commissioned a music themed art trail ‘Music for the Senses’ and developed a creative campaign ‘Manchester Live 25’ that amplified the celebration of Manchester as the city of live music, combining elements of music, pop culture, street art, fashion and lifestyle across digital and physical touchpoints in the city and ensuring that the impact of the major events in the city over the summer extended beyond the reach of individual ticketholders.
5.14 The commercial partnerships forged with the live music promoters by the City Council provides the platform on which they can generate their commercial revenues, but it also leverages in funding streams that get reinvested into our venue assets and into the wider events programme. But the benefits can be shared much wider. The Oasis concerts created a £100,000 community impact fund that will be invested into community groups and projects in areas adjacent to the park, the guitar art created for Music For The Senses will be auctioned off in September and create a one-off funding pot that will support new and emerging music artists in the city, and the City Council has announced the establishment of a £245,000 fund – from the proceeds of hiring out the City’s parks for the Oasis concerts in 2025 and other events or from business rates paid by the major music venues in the city – that will support grassroots music venues.
“While the biggest gigs - in the city’s arenas and parks - might dominate the headlines, we know they are only possible because they are part of a wider ecosystem with smaller, grassroots venues providing the launchpads for acts to develop and grow,” said council leader Bev Craig, announcing the fund. “We know that across the country grassroots venues are struggling. That’s why we want to ensure that our grassroots venues can share some of the benefit from the success of those big events.”
5.15 The Manchester Event Commission and the integration of the recognition of the value of major events into our key strategic priorities demonstrates that the Manchester City Region has a clarity in what it is setting out to achieve to drive growth from major events whilst maximising the social benefits and how it aims to go about delivering against that ambition and it needs to be questioned whether national frameworks for investment in major events fully reflect the regional needs. Cities and City Regions are best placed to forge the strategic relationships with the event industry and set out how we can shape investment to create vibrant live event ecosystems that will drive benefits locally and nationally.
5.16. A national Major Events Strategy would undoubtably assist to shape and/or confirm direction, but the context of individual cities and regions needs to be factored in to realise the benefits of major events fully.
5.17. The strong relationships and funding opportunities we have as a city with UK Sport and Arts Council England are hugely appreciated and remain vital in supporting the city to continue to meet its ambitions to attract and secure mega and major events that reflect against national priorities, however, accepting the challenges to public finances, there is a need to expand the national funding opportunity beyond the defined parameters of sport and arts to capture the breadth of the live event sector – and to place major event funding and the decisions on allocation into the hands of the cities and regions that can maximise the return on investment.
5.18. Too often we are competing with other UK cities to bid for major event properties or as a city we are isolated actors in attracting global profile events that deliver against the ambitions for UK Tourism because they do not fit with the funding criteria of national agencies.
5.19 It is recognised that the strength of London is a huge draw for major events and a major tourism asset for the UK that brings in tens of millions of visitors each year , but Manchester and other UK cities and regions should be complementing the offer of the capital and provide a major event outlet that can increase visits and support the growth of the tourism industry.
6.1 The legacy opportunities through investment in transport to support major events are immense as shown by the impact of London 2012. It saw transport plans wholly integrated into the event plans and facilities which improved accessibility for all introduced on London’s transport network. Technology enabled mobility was supported including real-time data, integrated ticketing, and demand-responsive transport (DRT) systems which form part of a long-term legacy from a major event. It also saw that encouraging changes to commuters’ travel behaviors led to permanent changes including increased cycling and walking and use of their river services. The positive long-term impact that has on health and wellbeing is not to be underestimated along with the positive impact on carbon emissions and cleaner air. The investment in long-term transport improvements designed with legacy in mind can leave a massive positive impact long after a major event such as London 2012.
6.2 Positive visitor experience is crucial for the success of the event itself, getting them to and from the venue safely and efficiently is essential and also delivers longer term destination impact and economic benefits from tourism. Personal safety is regularly cited as one of the key barriers to using public transport so it is vital to ensure that events and transport organisers work together to ensure they can deliver a coordinated approach including wayfinding, lighting, security staff etc. But often there is no clear ownership for transport provision between event organisers, local authorities, transport authorities, operators and government departments. Yet ensuring spectator transport needs are identified and supported is a hugely important element of the success of a major event.
6.3 Manchester is working hard to ensure its venues are connected to the Bee Network but there are so many venues across the UK (outside of London) which lack integrated, high-capacity public transport links to support major events. Venues not served by mass transit require bespoke transport solutions which need to be considered as part of the overall cost of hosting the event but often overlooked.
6.4 There are many examples across the world including Olympic, UEFA and FIFA events where inclusive event ticketing provides travel on the local public transport network making the event a hugely enhanced experience for visitors. This initiative also plays a valuable role in longer term behaviour change by providing an opportunity for trial. An investment by the new Co-op Live Arena in Manchester saw travel on tram and shuttle bus provided free of charge to ticket holders in their opening season from April to July 2024. Over 250,000 journeys were made during this time and initial research suggests that the inclusive travel offer drove an approximate 20% additional journeys by public transport.
7.1 What are the shared challenges faced by the major events industry?
The UK events sector—spanning sport, culture, and conferencing—is navigating a complex environment shaped by financial pressures, operational constraints, and strategic uncertainty. While many challenges are shared across domains, others are unique to either sport or culture, requiring differentiated policy responses.
7.1.1 Shared Challenges Across Sport and Culture
A major concern across the sector is the persistent issue of budget constraints and rising costs, often intensified by long lead-in times from feasibility to delivery. These multi-year planning cycles introduce financial uncertainty and reduce agility in responding to emerging opportunities or risks.
The sector also suffers from fragmentation, with sport, culture, and conferencing frequently operating in isolation. This siloed approach limits cross-sector collaboration, reduces efficiency, and hinders the development of integrated policy interventions that could strengthen the sector as a whole.
Workforce sustainability is another critical issue. High levels of burnout, limited succession planning, and inconsistent supplier contracting policies undermine resilience and threaten the long-term viability of event delivery teams. These pressures are felt across both sport and culture, where staffing models often rely on freelance or short-term contracts.
The evolving threat landscape—including deliberate disruption, extreme weather, and public health crises—poses growing risks to all event types. Mitigation strategies are often underfunded or inconsistently applied, increasing financial and reputational exposure.
Sustainability remains a strategic imperative. Despite increasing commitments to carbon reduction and zero-waste principles, implementation is uneven. There is a clear need for policy support to drive innovation, standardisation, and accountability in sustainable event delivery.
The rise of hybrid and immersive formats presents both opportunities and challenges. Digital integration can enhance accessibility and reach, but also introduces risks related to cybersecurity, evolving technologies, and associated costs. These developments require updated regulatory frameworks and investment in digital infrastructure and skills.
Finally, global competition in event bidding is intensifying. Wealthier nations are increasingly able to outspend others, raising expectations around prize money and event investment. This trend risks marginalising smaller or less affluent hosts and reducing the diversity of international event opportunities.
7.1.2 Culture-Specific Challenges
The cultural events sector faces distinct structural and strategic barriers. Funding for large-scale cultural events in England is significantly lower than for sport, with little direct strategic support from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Cultural Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) lack dedicated schemes to support events at the required scale, and application processes are slow and highly competitive, making timely confirmation of funding for bidding purposes difficult.
Unlike sport, the number of major cultural properties available for competitive bidding is limited, especially at the international level. As a result, cultural programming often relies on the development of new event properties. While this allows for alignment with local strengths and avoids licensing fees, it requires significant R&D investment, long-term commitment, and time to establish market presence.
These challenges are compounded by the absence of a national strategy for major cultural events in England. Scotland and Wales have established frameworks, but England lacks a coordinated approach. Investment in large-scale cultural events has been largely ad hoc, with no clear pathway for national support or inter-regional collaboration. There is no single point of contact within DCMS to facilitate conversations around bids or event development, leading to missed opportunities and inefficient competition between UK nations, regions, and cities.
The lack of strategic coordination also hinders collective learning and growth, although the 2012 Legacy body’s Golden Thread Report offers a valuable model for collaborative working. Any future strategy should consider a portmanteau model, enabling DCMS to lead while working in partnership with devolved nations and regions, backed by dedicated funding and leadership.
7.2 What untapped opportunities should the major events sector be exploring?
To remain competitive and future-ready, the UK events sector must embrace a range of transformative opportunities that support international collaboration, technological advancement, and infrastructure development. While many of these opportunities are shared across sport and culture, others are sector-specific and require tailored approaches to unlock their full potential.
International collaboration offers significant potential for growth. Multi-host delivery models can distribute financial and logistical burdens while fostering cross-border knowledge exchange, trade partnerships, and cultural diplomacy. These models enhance the global impact of events and create opportunities for shared learning and innovation.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) across operational areas presents a major opportunity to improve efficiency. AI can automate administrative tasks, optimize crowd management, and personalize attendee experiences, allowing event teams to focus on strategic delivery while reducing costs.
Data capture and sharing across regions and sectors is another critical enabler of progress. Interoperable systems and robust governance frameworks can support evidence-based decision-making, benchmarking, and the development of best practices across sport, culture, and conferencing.
Emerging formats such as gamification, hybrid events, and immersive experiences are reshaping audience engagement. These innovations offer new ways to connect with diverse demographics, extend reach, and create memorable, interactive environments. Realising their potential will require policy support for experimentation and investment in digital infrastructure.
Facility development must be approached with long-term adaptability in mind. Venues should be designed as multi-purpose spaces capable of serving social, community, elite sport, and cultural functions. This includes ensuring readiness in terms of technology, power supply, seating configurations, and accessibility. Strategic layering of venue use can maximise public value and ensure return on investment.
The cultural sector has a unique opportunity to create new international cultural properties, some of which may have export potential. Unlike sport, where established global event formats dominate, culture can focus on developing original programming that reflects local strengths and meets community needs. These bespoke properties avoid licensing fees and competitive bidding, offering greater creative freedom and long-term value.
However, realising this potential requires sustained investment in research and development, time to build market presence, and strategic support to scale initiatives. With the right backing, these properties can contribute to national identity, international reputation, and economic growth.
7.3 What non-monetary changes would make a significant change to the events industry in a positive way?
To ensure the long-term relevance, inclusivity, and impact of the events sector, it is essential to embed a set of core values into all aspects of planning, delivery, and legacy. Accessibility must be prioritised at every stage—from venue design and digital platforms to programming and communications—ensuring that events are welcoming and inclusive for all participants, regardless of physical ability, socio-economic background, or other barriers. The Golden Thread report highlights the importance of aligning events with public purpose, community benefit, and long-term outcomes—principles that must guide future strategy and investment.
Equally important is the need to encourage diversity across leadership, workforce, and audiences. A diverse sector is more innovative, resilient, and reflective of the communities it serves. This requires proactive policies and practices that support representation and equity across all dimensions of identity.
A sustainability mindset should underpin all decision-making, moving beyond compliance to a culture of environmental responsibility. This includes embedding carbon reduction, circular economy principles, and zero-waste goals into procurement, logistics, and legacy planning.
Collaboration and knowledge sharing must be strengthened across regions, sectors, and disciplines. By breaking down silos and fostering open exchange, the sector can accelerate innovation, build collective resilience, and ensure that lessons learned are widely disseminated and applied.
A focus on wellbeing—for staff, volunteers, participants, and communities—is also critical. This includes addressing workload pressures, promoting mental health, and creating supportive environments that value people as much as performance.
Finally, the early engagement of communities is essential to building trust, relevance, and long-term value. Involving local stakeholders from the outset ensures that events are shaped by those they affect, leading to stronger outcomes and more meaningful legacies.
7.4 Where could there be better collaboration within the major events sector?
To strengthen the UK events sector and ensure its long-term sustainability, a number of strategic opportunities must be pursued. These opportunities span both sport and culture, with some requiring sector-specific approaches and others benefiting from cross-sector collaboration.
Public-private partnerships remain a vital mechanism for unlocking investment, sharing risk, and enhancing delivery capacity. By leveraging the strengths of both sectors, these partnerships can support innovation, infrastructure development, and long-term legacy planning.
Technology and data sharing across agencies, cities, and regions offers significant potential to improve coordination and decision-making. Establishing interoperable systems and governance frameworks will enable better benchmarking, real-time insights, and collective learning across sport, culture, and conferencing.
Workforce development is essential to retain expertise and build local capacity. A structured approach—such as requiring a percentage of mentoring and apprenticeship opportunities per event—can help ensure that knowledge remains within host locations even as delivery staff transition between projects. This addresses the recurring challenge of the “merry-go-round” of major event personnel and supports long-term sector resilience.
Closer collaboration between sport, culture, and conferencing can unlock shared value and reduce duplication. Joint planning, shared infrastructure, and integrated programming can enhance audience engagement and improve cost-efficiency.
Regional collaboration is already emerging as a strength. Examples include Manchester’s support for Liverpool’s Eurovision delivery and the Rocket 2030 initiative, which demonstrates joined-up planning across the Liverpool–Manchester corridor. These models offer valuable lessons for national coordination and should be scaled where appropriate.
A key opportunity lies in the development of a national major events strategy led by DCMS, with a dedicated and resourced team working across the UK, and particularly in England. While Scotland and Wales have established national strategies for events, England lacks a coordinated framework. A national strategy would provide clarity on priorities, streamline bidding processes, and enable more effective collaboration between regions and sectors.
7.5 Role of Government
7.5.1 Which Government bodies do you engage with as part of organising major events?
Sport:
Culture
7.5.2 How effective are they at helping with the issues you raise as priorities?
The effectiveness of government bodies in supporting the priorities raised by the major events sector varies significantly between sport and culture.
Sport Sector
Government engagement through UK Sport is generally regarded as highly effective. UK Sport provides a clear interface for event organisers, with structured processes, responsive support, and strategic funding mechanisms. This has enabled successful bidding and delivery of major international sporting events, contributing to economic impact, community engagement, and legacy outcomes.
Culture Sector
In contrast, support for cultural events is less effective and significantly underdeveloped. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) does not currently offer a coordinated strategy or dedicated funding stream for large-scale cultural events in England. Cultural Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs), such as Arts Council England, primarily focus on smaller-scale or ongoing cultural programming and lack mechanisms to support major one-off or touring cultural events at scale.
This gap has led to:
7.5.3 Cross-Cutting Observations
7.6 What would you like to see put in place to address/improve this?
Policy Recommendations for Strengthening the UK Major Events Sector
7.6.1. Establish a National Major Events Strategy for England
Recommendation:
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) should develop and implement a comprehensive national strategy for major events in England, aligned with existing frameworks in Scotland and Wales.
Rationale:
England currently lacks a coordinated approach to major events, resulting in missed opportunities, fragmented bidding processes, and inefficient resource allocation.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.2. Create a National Events Investment and Coordination Framework
Recommendation:
Establish a UK-wide framework for event investment and coordination, modelled on the Manchester Events Commission, to pool resources and align strategic ambitions.
Rationale:
Fragmented funding and reactive bidding reduce competitiveness and impact. A unified approach can leverage greater investment and ensure long-term planning.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.3. Strengthen Public-Private Partnerships in Event Delivery
Recommendation:
Develop a national framework to support public-private partnerships in major events, including guidance on co-investment, risk-sharing, and legacy planning.
Rationale:
Successful global event cities rely on strong public-private collaboration to deliver high-impact events and maximise economic and social returns.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.4. Embed Workforce Development Requirements in Event Funding
Recommendation:
Introduce workforce development criteria into public funding for major events, including mandatory mentoring, apprenticeships, and local capacity-building.
Rationale:
The sector suffers from high staff turnover and limited knowledge retention. Structured development pathways can build local expertise and long-term resilience.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.5. Integrate Transport Planning into Event Strategy
Recommendation:
Mandate integrated transport planning for all major events, with a focus on accessibility, safety, and long-term legacy.
Rationale:
Transport is critical to visitor experience and legacy impact. Poor coordination between stakeholders undermines event success and public confidence.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.6. Support the Development of New Cultural Event Properties
Recommendation:
Create a dedicated fund to support the creation and scaling of new cultural event properties with export potential.
Rationale:
Unlike sport, culture lacks a pipeline of bid-ready international events. Developing bespoke properties can enhance national identity and global reach.
Implementation Actions:
7.6.7. Support the private sector/commercial major events sector as an engine of growth
Recommendation:
Create a supportive commercial operating environment for major event promoters and event organisers that will help stimulate growth and widen prosperity
Rationale:
Major event promoters and organisers generate revenues that support sectoral growth and wider sector interdependencies, sustain jobs and skills, drive national and international visitation and provide the creativity and innovation that will define the event industry of the future.
Implementation Actions:
7.7 Are there Government models in other countries or devolved nations which make the organising of major events easier and what are the key lessons that can be learned?
Yes. There are several government models—both internationally and within the UK—that offer valuable lessons for improving the organisation and delivery of major events.
7.7.1 Devolved Nations: Scotland
Scotland provides a clear example of effective strategic coordination. The Scottish Government has developed a national major events strategy, supported by a dedicated team and funding mechanisms. This framework enables:
This model contrasts with the current situation in England, where the absence of a national strategy leads to fragmented efforts, missed opportunities, and inefficient competition between cities and regions.
7.7.2 International Best Practice
A best practice review conducted by Manchester City Council and Marketing Manchester examined successful event cities including Auckland, Vancouver, Glasgow, Melbourne, New York, and Sydney. Common features across these cities include:
These models demonstrate that successful event delivery is not solely dependent on financial investment, but also on strategic clarity, coordination, and shared ownership.
Key Lessons for the UK Government
By adopting these lessons, the UK can strengthen its global competitiveness in the major events sector and ensure that events deliver lasting economic, social, and cultural benefits.
7.8 Regulation
7.8.1 What has or will likely be the impact of recent legislation either passed or going through Parliament currently on the major events industry?
Martyn’s Law represents an important and appropriate response to the evolving threat landscape facing public events. It rightly prioritises public safety and preparedness, ensuring that venues and organisers take proactive steps to mitigate the risk of terrorism and protect attendees.
However, while the sector fully supports the principles underpinning Martyn’s Law, it is important to acknowledge the operational and financial implications of its implementation—particularly for smaller venues, community-led events, and local authorities.
Key considerations include:
In summary, while Martyn’s Law is a vital step forward in public protection, its successful implementation will depend on proportionate regulation, targeted support, and collaborative working across the sector.
Indirectly connected to the good practice that will be developed through the implementation of Martyn’s Law, there also needs to be a review of the risk hierarchy around highways-based events and large public gatherings and whether current Highways legislation and regulations are fit for purpose in the 21st Century. We are at risk of compromising safety and security and losing street based festivals and events through dated regulations that promote right of way over security and licensing imperatives and further compromising safety and security through the adoption of loose guidance on the development of Zone X management and the grey areas of responsibility.
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