Newcastle’s NE1 Wins International Award After Record-Breaking Summer

Local TV

NE1 capped a record-breaking summer — drawing 201,183 visitors to its events, generating over £1.1m for local restaurants and helping raise thousands for charity and has won an International Downtown Association excellence prize for Screen on the Green.

Transcript

00:00Anyone has capped a record-breaking summer with international recognition in eye-watering

00:05crowd numbers. The Washington DC-based International Downtown Association has handed them an excellence

00:12prize for its screen on the green at Old Eldon Square here. The second major award the programme

00:18has picked up this year after being crowned Best Event by the ATCM in June. During the

00:24summer their events drew in over 200,000 people, while the wider city programme welcomed more

00:30than 600,000 visitors. Screen on the green alone attracted over 110,000 people, showing

00:36more than 100 free films and live sporting coverage and even staying in place this year to screen

00:41the BBC's Great North Run. Oh it's huge, yeah we're absolutely delighted. I think to get

00:46international recognition for the event just really shows sort of the impact that it's

00:51had. The IDA held in such high esteem in our industry, and it's quite a specific industry,

00:58to get this recognition from them and to place ourselves amongst the sort of company that

01:02we're now amongst across all of America and Canada, we're just really delighted.

01:08It's like night and day really, honestly. When we moved here in 2016, and it was the first

01:13year that I'd done it, Monument Movies had been the precursor, and that was two movies three

01:18times a week. And the first thing that we did was decide that it needed to be every day.

01:22And then I had a few years of being every day, and it was just films. And to go from that,

01:26where people would sort of drop in or pass by and take a seat maybe, to now where you have families

01:32coming in fully prepared to come and sit and watch a specific film, and then you've got queues for other

01:36areas. It's just transformational, it's amazing. It's huge for the economy. Each of those visitors

01:43will have contributed in some way. Some of them more than others, there'll be people who've come

01:47and stayed for a weekend or longer, all the meals that come with that, the shopping that comes with

01:52it, the travel into the city, plus the amount of goods that it does our profile sort of nationally

01:58and internationally. And I think the really important thing for me has been the breadth of events that

02:03have happened. You know, there've been live music events inside a stadium, there've been festival

02:09style events, there've been our family friendly things, there've been sporting events, motocross,

02:14there's been so much going on for different groups. And I think if we can get to a place where we have

02:19this curated calendar as a city, where we're constantly attracting different audiences, that's

02:24really where we're going to see the benefits just grow and grow.

02:29Big outdoor draws included a brand new K-side carnival that pulled in over 10,000 attendees with

02:34interactive performances and time pleasure trips. And the Newcastle Dragon Boat Race, which involved

02:40more than 850 competitors, drew crowds of 17,000 plus and raised more than £30,000 for charities,

02:47including the Great North Children's Hospital Fund. The Business Improvement District stretched the

02:53season right through to the end of September this year, wringing every last bit of summer out of the city.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended