Region profited from youth fest

THE under threat Youth Beatz festival generated more than £1 million for the local economy this year.

Breaking the million mark was a record figure for the music fest, and every pound invested in the event by Dumfries and Galloway Council generated £6.09 for the region.

The huge economic boost at the two-day event at Park Farm in Dumfries was largely down to the generosity of 235 volunteers who gave a total of 8708 volunteer hours.

These figures will be taken into consideration by councillors because pulling the plug on funding for next year’s event is once again on the table as part of the budget savings options for 2026/27.

A capacity crowd of 40,000 flocked to Park Farm on June 28 and 29 this year to enjoy a range of acts, including Jax Jones, Liberty X, and DJ Sammy.

An evaluation report on the event has now been produced by Dumfries and Galloway Council, which will be presented to councillors at the education, skills, and community wellbeing committee next week.

In the report, Mark Molloy, the council’s service manager for young people, wrote: “Using the national economic impact assessment tool developed by EventScotland and VisitScotland, the direct economic impact of Youth Beatz on the local economy was £1,090,675.

“This is a significant impact on the local economy and shows the wider impact of our council’s support to Youth Beatz. This economic impact provides a return on investment of £6.09 for every £1 our council puts into the festival.”

The previous year, the festival generated £983,081 and was hailed a huge success.

However, tickets to Youth Beatz have always been given out to young music fans for free over the past nine years.

This year, the council bill for staging the event was £179,000.

Councillors have previously discussed the potential for introducing a £5 ticket charge, which would effectively cover the cost of the event if all 40,000 tickets were sold out.

However, the report prepared for next week’s committee warns of some downside to introducing a fee.

It states: “VAT at 20 percent would need to be paid on every ticket sold. Also, 2.7 percent Performing Rights Society charge would need to be paid on every ticket sold.

“We would need to use a commercial booking agent to sell tickets online and they would normally charge ten percent extra to ticket price for their fee, which would be passed on to the customer.”

It was explained that going down this route would mean that the council only retains 77p of each pound in ticket sales.

The amount of external funding that organisers attract would also be cut.

The report states: “National Lottery has provided advice that they could not fund the festival should any charge be introduced due to the funding stream that is providing Youth Beatz with the funding is for free activities for young people.

“Police Scotland could be required to charge the festival for policing costs. We currently do not pay for this as the festival is free – Police Scotland has advised that this amount would vary depending on the ticket price.”