Telford's T Live to return as McFly concert loss revealed

Ticket sales for T Live and T Party, put on by Telford & Wrekin Council in August and September, failed to cover costs.

The authority today said the events were not about making money but proving the borough was a destination capable of staging successful shows.

T Live, which headlined McFly alongside Loveable Rogues, Luminites and Stooshe on September 7 cost £242,634 to put on and returned £215,149, making a total loss of £27,484.

T Party Children's Festival, a packed programme of family entertainment from August 30 to September 1, cost £30,021 to organise But it only brought in £17,147 through fees, sponsorship, grants and ticket sale, bringing a total loss of £12,874.

The shortfall for both events came to £40,358, papers from a Freedom of Information request revealed today.

The cost was covered by a £50,000 budget that was approved by the council's cabinet in April 2013 for events as part of the Destination Telford - Delivering Growth and Shaping Places initiative.

Organisers hailed the events held in the Queen Elizabeth II Fields In Trust Arena in Telford Town Park a "glorious success" and said it could become an annual event.

Councillor Bill McClements, cabinet member with responsibility for finance and enterprise, said today: "Yes, we didn't make money but this is about so much more than simply making money.

"The first T Live and T Party events were about creating a buzz and establishing an event that can become a real draw to Telford and for our residents, supporting our plans to make our borough a place that people want to come to, talk about and to invest in.

"We're confident that we have created an event that can be built on and that will continue to grow and help to put Telford even more firmly on the map." The amount of people expected to attend the T Party event was estimated to be between 6,000 to 12,000 over the weekend Some events were ticketed but most were free and the council estimated that more than 8,000 attended over the three nights and two days of T Party.

T Live, which also featured Shropshire bands Madison and The Making, was a ticketed event and the attendance was 3,177. Of these, 16 tickets were given away as competition prizes and 214 were for local businesses, event sponsors and the Georgia Williams Trust.

The charity raised £800 towards access to adventure activities for young people in memory of the Telford teenager. Tickets to T Live cost £35 for adults and £30 for 11-16 year-olds but days before the show, 1,000 tickets were available for £21 on discount website Groupon.

Councillor McClements said the council would like to put on a similar event next year, building on the experience of T Live and T Party.

He said: "This year's event was about testing the concept and establishing the arena as a venue for future live concerts.

"We have proved that Telford and the Arena are a great venue that can host top names acts and events and pull in big crowds – whether it is for a gig or for free community events such as we had at T Party.

"As expected, we've learned a lot from this year's events and we now have a very strong platform on which we can now build as we will start planning now something similar in 2014.

"We worked very closely with event management company Seventh Sense who supported the council in a range of ways to make T Live possible this year."

The FOI request for the information was submitted by Callam Delaney, who said he wanted to highlight the cost of the events to the taxpayer.

He said: "This is what happens when local councils decide to pay for things they couldn't encourage private companies to do. They lost money. Evidently not great as far as Telford & Wrekin residents are concerned."