Leyland’s Music In The Park axed

Leyland’s annual Music in the Park event has been axed amid a surge in the prices charged by artists on the concert circuit – and no sign of the gig breaking even anytime soon.

South Ribble Borough Council has staged the retro-themed concert in Worden Park every year since 2022 – but it will not be returning, a meeting of the local authority heard.

The show focused largely on acts who were at the peak of their pop powers in the ‘80s and ‘90s – including Bananarama, Nik Kershaw, Go West, B*Witched and Peter Andre.

It had been loss-making since its inception, but the council was aiming for it to cover its costs by 2027 and become a permanent fixture on the calendar – inspired by the model of the hugely successful Lytham Festival.

The subsidy for the Leyland event initially came from a government Covid recovery grant awarded to South Ribble, but a plan approved by councillors in 2023 noted that any necessary funding would come out of the authority’s own budget from 2025 until the ambition for the concert to become self-financing was achieved.

Figures obtained by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) reveal that this year’s gig – held in May – cost the council £131,000, which was £11,000 more than had been set aside for it.  A £30,000 contribution was also required from South Ribble’s allocation from the government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

That brought the total bill to £161,000 after income from ticket sales – a £59,000 increase on 2024.

The inaugural Music in the Park in 2022 had cost less than £85,000, more than doubling to £169,000 in 2023, before falling back to £102,000 last year after an increase in income.

South Ribble Borough Council leader Matthew Tomlinson said the authority had wanted and “tried really hard” to make the event work, but explained that the bill for the performers booked for the concert had “sky-rocketed” during its short history.

“Our first headline act [Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley] cost about half of what our final headline act [The Boomtown Rats] cost…so the cost is astronomical.

“The cost-of-living crisis [also] means people are less likely to pay out for expensive tickets,” Cllr Tomlinson added.   The standard ticket price this year was £55.

However, the Labour leader said he was “confident” that the council’s forthcoming cultural strategy would include “a whole series of events that we want to put on in South Ribble that people will want to come to”.

The first Music In the Park in 2022 – which had originally been planned for 2020, but was delayed by the pandemic –  attracted around 2,500 people.   By last year, more than 4,000 visitors flocked to the event, but even as the crowd size increased, the prospect of breaking even remained distant.

Liberal Democrat group leader David Howarth – who has previously been highly critical of the costs incurred by the public purse in staging the show – said it was right that the authority recognised it was “not sustainable” to continue in that vein, but did praise the council for “having a go”.

However, he nevertheless questioned the calibre – and even the identity – of some of the acts, stating that they did not, in his opinion, have the “legendary” status with which they were billed.

A spokesperson for South Ribble Borough Council said: “We’ve had a fantastic summer of events here in South Ribble that many people have enjoyed, such as Penwortham and Longton Live, Leyland Festival, Music in the Park, Music in the Town, Lostock Hall Carnival and the annual commemoration of the Battle of Bamber Bridge.

“Over the summer, South Ribble Borough Council has been developing its first ever cultural strategy which has included a review of our events programme.

“Sadly, along with several other similar events across the region, we have had to make the difficult decision that Music in the Park will not be continuing in 2026 and beyond due to ever rising costs.

“Our new cultural strategy will provide an exciting opportunity for communities across South Ribble to be involved in the development of new events for the future.

“In the meantime, we are looking forward to the Leyland Christmas light switch on, in November.  A further announcement for events in 2026 and beyond will be made later in the year.