Agenda item

Interview with Emily Hirons, General Manager and Natalie Kirk, Events Manager, of Kent Life.

Emily Hirons, General Manager, and Natalie Kirk, Events Manager of Kent Life were invited to speak on item 8: Events Review- Kent Life.

Emily Hirons explained to the committee that Kent Life was an open air heritage museum. Kent Life had a target audience of families with young children and received 125,000 visitors last year. Kent Life ran 21 events at the museum throughout the year last year. Each event was themed seasonally and structured around the four themes of the museum:

·  Fun and Family

·  Vintage Village

·  Gardens

·  Farmyard and Nature

It was explained to the committee by Emily Hirons that structuring events around the seasons helped to bring visitors to the attraction throughout the year. Profits from events subsidised other activities on the site, for example keeping the Oast House lit. Events made up more than half of Kent Life’s revenue, but accounted for less than half of its days open.

Emily Hirons informed the committee that the Safety Advisory Group- a body made up of representatives from Maidstone Borough Council as well as emergency services to advise events organisers around safety- had been very helpful.

In response to a question from the committee, Emily Hirons reported that Kent Life’s Events budget was £38,000 and the marketing budget was £20,000. Most of this was spent with local businesses. The PR value of the events that Kent Life runs has been estimated at around £1.4 million.

Emily Hirons highlighted the value to the local area that their events brought. Emily Hirons made the following observations:

·  On event days local transport and hotels were busy;

·  Local catering businesses did well with their on-site stalls, some taking up to £4,000 a day;

·  Other local stallholders had an opportunity to make money at these events;

·  Cobtree Young Farmers were paid to assist with car parking;

·  Reciprocal arrangements were in place with local businesses. For example a local brewery brewed their yearly hop harvest;

·  Scout Troops and St John’s Ambulance helped out on the day; and

·  At peak season in the summer the number of staff employed at Kent Life increased from 20 to 50, providing a source of local employment.

Natalie Kirk observed that Maidstone Borough Council’s commercial events had sometimes competed with Kent Life’s. For example, Maidstone Borough Council held a Peppa Pig event on Mote Park in summer 2013. Kent Life had held a similar event during a similar period. Emily Hirons indicated that greater co-ordination between events organisers, to prevent competing events being held, would be helpful.

Emily Hirons considered who valued the events run by Kent Life and gave the following examples:

·  Members of Kent Life valued the events as they gained free entry.

·  Different audiences valued different events. For example, Senior citizens groups valued the ‘Christmas on the Home Front’ event. Around 10 coach loads of senior citizens attend, mainly from the East End of London.

·  Volunteers valued the events. For example, Kent Life had a retired Hop Stringer who volunteered to string the hops in their hop garden.

The committee asked whether there were any links with Maidstone Museum. Emily Hirons responded that there were no links but this was definitely something that Kent Life would like to explore further.

In response to a question asked by the committee, Emily Hirons reported that Kent Life received 10,000 visits from schools. Emily Hirons also explained that Kent Life run tailor made events for school parties that are specialised and based around the curriculum.

A member enquired how engaged Maidstone Borough Council had been with Kent Life’s events. Emily Hirons reported to the committee that since the governance structure and leaseholder arrangements had been simplified it had enabled Kent Life to be more engaged with the council. Emily Hirons also stated that since this re-organisation of arrangements, which had provided a more direct link with Maidstone Borough Council, it had become clearer who they needed to contact within the council for support.

The committee enquired whether Kent Life had experienced any problems around licensing. In response to this question Emily Hirons stated that Kent Life had all of the relevant licenses and had no criticism of the process of obtaining these licenses.

The committee was interested to know whether Kent Life was self-funding. Emily Hirons responded that Kent Life was indeed self-funding and relied financially entirely on admissions to the attraction.

Emily Hirons informed the committee that they currently did not have access to giftaid. However it was explained that Kent Life would like to explore this now that they were working closer with the council.

RESOLVED: That the evidence given by Emily Hirons and Natalie Kirk in relation to the review topic be noted.