Sheffield's venues and events have lost nearly £11m and 1.25m visitors because of Covid-19 – but this is how they can recover

Sheffield has missed out on more than 1.25 million visitors to its cultural venues, events and festivals because of the Covid-19 pandemic – leading to lost income of nearly £11 million, stark new figures show.
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Lockdown has shut the city's museums, galleries, theatres and nightclubs, and caused major events such as Tramlines and the Doc/Fest – which attract over 60,000 people between them annually – to either be cancelled or radically reimagined.

A study by Sheffield University, run with support from the council, surveyed groups across the local cultural sector, prompting scores of responses outlining the impact different places would feel up to the end of August this year.

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Organisations that took part included Sheffield Theatres, Museums Sheffield, the Showroom cinema, Sheffield International Venues, the Off The Shelf festival, Heritage Open Days, the Rutland Hotel, S1 Artspace and the Site Gallery.

Tramlines at Hillsborough Park in 2019. The music festival has been cancelled this year. Picture: Dean Atkins.Tramlines at Hillsborough Park in 2019. The music festival has been cancelled this year. Picture: Dean Atkins.
Tramlines at Hillsborough Park in 2019. The music festival has been cancelled this year. Picture: Dean Atkins.

Museums and theatres had missed out on 1.1 million visitors, the poll found, while events and festivals accounted for 148,770 of lost audience members.

More than half of those involved in music had seen their income decrease or stop altogether. The largest loss reported by an individual respondent to the survey was £4.5 million.

In excess of 1,000 staff have been furloughed, in some cases representing 90 per cent of a single workforce – some jobs had already gone, with long-term redundancies either anticipated or planned.

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The £11 million sum relates to money lost from ticket sales, retail sales, sponsorship and donations. A wider estimated loss is anticipated for Sheffield’s wider leisure and restaurant industry.

A night at The Leadmill in Sheffield.A night at The Leadmill in Sheffield.
A night at The Leadmill in Sheffield.

“The current challenges are clearly cash flow, uncertainty and survival in the immediate short term,” says a report that will be submitted to Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport select committee.

“The wide range of industries within the creative ecology demonstrates that a percentage of respondents perceive that either they or their organisations could fall through the funding gaps, e.g. because the organisation is not a non-profit organisation, not eligible for the small business grant, business relate relief or other Government schemes.”

Culture, the report says, needs to be viewed as ‘being essential and useful to our recovery’ and a means of surviving a ‘collective trauma’. “The cultural assets of Sheffield underpin both the city’s visitor economy and the health and wellbeing of its residents.”

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It calls for more support to help organisations improve their digital services, giving them the tools to switch quickly to live-streaming or online exhibitions if coronavirus spikes again.

Dr Abi Shapiro with works by William Scott at the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield. Picture: Chris Etchells.Dr Abi Shapiro with works by William Scott at the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield. Picture: Chris Etchells.
Dr Abi Shapiro with works by William Scott at the Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield. Picture: Chris Etchells.

“The demand for online content is there but the mechanism of creating revenue is currently not financially cost effective for the majority of the cultural organisations in the city.”

The long-term effect of the crisis will, the report says, likely match the national pattern – namely that the creative field is expected to be hit twice as hard as the wider economy in 2020, with permanent roles and freelance posts ‘decimated’.

“Yorkshire was named the number one region for creative industries in 2018 and in Sheffield the sector contributed £248.12 million to the local economy, with 7,230 people employed in the creative industries and a wider ecology of freelance support estimated at 21,000 in the wider City Region.”

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The recently-formed Sheffield Culture Collective – a partnership between the city's public, private and voluntary sector that was launched last September – had been trying to create a ‘compelling vision’ before the pandemic, the report says.

The Showroom CinemaThe Showroom Cinema
The Showroom Cinema

“If the impact of COVID-19 continues, a large proportion of jobs and opportunities will be lost and the consequences for the economy of the city and the emerging vision for culture will be catastrophic.”

There is uncertainty about the social distancing measures that will be required in venues, the survey found, along with concerns about ‘audience anxiety’ caused by visitors worried about catching coronavirus. In addition, people are ‘clearly becoming accustomed to free content without understanding the cost implications’.

“It is likely that we will also see significant reductions in Sheffield Council funding in the future and a significant drop in grant availability in the future which is especially worrying for those organisations that rely on match funding due to current Arts Council England models.

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“All the respondents mentioned were seeking support from available government funding, including ACE and the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with a large percentage being ineligible for funding from banks.”

The report adds: “The majority of the respondents made it clear that the Government needs to be aware that the need for emergency funding may last well into the following year, especially for cultural organisations who will not be opened until the last phases of the response.

“It is likely there will also be a significant impact on engagement once activity and sites are reopened – the income from activity is likely to be a reduced level for a long time, so even those organisations that are relatively financially secure for a few months will struggle in the future.”

Natter Jacks perform a set in the Graves Gallery for Tramlines. Picture: Dan Sumption.Natter Jacks perform a set in the Graves Gallery for Tramlines. Picture: Dan Sumption.
Natter Jacks perform a set in the Graves Gallery for Tramlines. Picture: Dan Sumption.

Professor Vanessa Toulmin, the university’s director of city and culture who wrote the report with her colleague, research and evaluation manager Fran Marshall, said she thought it was ‘essential’ that the creative industries are incorporated into local and national recovery plans.

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“I was impressed by the honesty of my colleagues in the cultural industry for giving such sensitive information at a time of difficulty, and I was devastated that what I believed was having an impact was demonstrated so clearly with statistics,” she said.

Prof Toulmin highlighted the need for a better digital infrastructure ‘for all those venues that haven’t got the possibility of live streaming’. “If things happen again we need to be better prepared, we need to make them Covid-proof. We’ve all learned so many great digital skills and new ways of working – let's find a possibility of putting those into a recovery strategy that brings income.”

She encouraged visitors to have confidence in returning to museums, galleries and venues when restrictions are lifted further.

“It will help the whole economy if people start coming back in, spending and participating. It’s also good for the USP of the city to show we’re open again. Sheffield has overcome many things. I’ve got great belief in the strength and tenacity of Sheffield people.”

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Before the Covid-19 outbreak worsened, figures had already revealed an enormous gulf in the amount of cultural funding Sheffield receives compared to other places in the North.

In 2018/19, Arts Council England spent £6.40 per head of population on organisations and projects as well as distributing £3.10 per person in National Lottery funding in Sheffield.

But in the same 12-month period, just under £49 per head was invested in Manchester's cultural scene – £34.21 was spent on behalf of each resident in Leeds, and £22.53 in Liverpool.

Previous years showed a similar disparity – in response, ACE said the funding body would 'love the opportunity to invest more money' in Sheffield, but that it needed 'strong partners in local government' to do so. Sheffield Council later insisted the authority’s relationship with ACE was already 'strong and ongoing’.

The report in numbers

1,253,220 – Total loss of attendees from March to August

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1,104,450 – Lost visitors to cultural venues such as museums and theatres

148,770 – Lost attendees at events and festivals

£10,885,192 – Lost income from ticket sales, retail sales, sponsorship and donations

£4.5 million – Biggest loss by a single organisation

£556,000 – Average financial loss felt by cultural groups

1,073 – Amount of staff furloughed

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