Anger at lack of council support for East Devon town’s major jazz festival

There’s anger about the lack of council support for a major jazz festival hosted in an East Devon town.

The Sidmouth International Jazz & Blues Festival, which returns for its fourth year later this month and has hit acts including Gabrielle, Curtis Stigers and Soul II Soul on its line-up, secures the majority of its support from private donors and the town council.
But the amount of support being offered by East Devon District Council is now being questioned given the size of the event and the benefits it brings to the area.
The council said it remained in “constructive dialogue” with the organisers and that it had tried to help minimise some fees and provided guidance on grants.
Ian Bowden, the festival’s creator and director, said he had asked the district council if it would be able to reduce its £2,600 hire fee for Blackmore Gardens, where the event takes place.
He said the council had not offered to reduce the fee for the festival, in spite of it “ticking all the cultural and economic boxes”.
“This year, the climate is so hard for festivals and so many are being postponed or even not going ahead, and so it felt important to try and ask East Devon again to see if they could help us,” he said.
“We certainly tick all the cultural and economic benefit boxes, as thousands of people come to the town from across the wider region and from further afield.
“But despite all the evidence we put forward, we simply have not had a positive response.”
Mr Bowden, who is also the festival director of the Rye International Jazz & Blues Festival in East Sussex, said reducing the hire fee would be a way for the council to support culture and the arts “in line with the strategy it created two years ago”.
“It takes about five to six years to bed something like this festival in and we’re trying to create a legacy, but festivals need help at the beginning and early point in their cycle,” he said.
“We haven’t asked for cash, but it seems to me that bureaucracy is getting in the way and there is no clear thinking.”
Councillor Ian Barlow, who represents Sidmouth on East Devon District Council, raised the issue at this week’s cabinet meeting (Wednesday 30 April), but was told he would get a written answer in the coming days because relevant officers were on holiday.
“The district council wants to attract festivals with a different, good quality line-up to attract people into the area, especially in the so-called shoulder season either side of the main summer time,” he said.
“This festival is in May, and it is organised as a not-for-profit event, so anything earned goes right back into the town.”
Cllr Barlow said the much smaller town council supported the festival to the tune of £20,000 because the “benefit to the town and its local businesses is far greater than that” thanks to the festival.
He added that the festival chimed with the district council’s cultural strategy, and that he worried what signal it could send to other potential event organisers.
“The [hire fee] is one thing, but it is the signal it sends to businesses and individuals who are putting these things on,” he added.
East Devon’s 2025-2031 Cultural Strategy document references as one of its objectives to work with “independent promoters and local destination marketing organisations, as well as the in-house events team, to maximise impact from notable events and festivals, with particular focus on those that take place in June/early July and September/ October (i.e. beyond the peak tourism season)”.
An East Devon District Council spokesperson said it recognised the “value and popularity” of the festival and that it “reflects many of the goals of our cultural strategy”, including reaching diverse audiences and boosting the local economy.
“While we are always keen to support events that deliver cultural, social and economic benefits to our communities, we must also ensure that public funds are allocated fairly and transparently,” the spokesperson said.
“Any request for financial assistance or a fee reduction is therefore subject to careful review.
“We remain in constructive dialogue with the festival organisers and will continue to explore appropriate ways we can offer support, such as providing guidance on the event management plan, reducing the number of setup hire days to minimise fees, expanding the timeframe for advertising banners to be displayed, and working with them to identify grant funding options in the future.”