The 2024 Taste Cumbria food festival in Cockermouth brought £2.2 million into the local economy, independent research has revealed.
The event, held over the last weekend of September, attracted more than 25,000 visitors to the town. The research figures show a return on investment of nearly £40 for every pound the organisers, Cumberland Council, spent on delivering the event.
An amazing 99% of these said they would return to another Taste Cumbria event, with 65% rating it as ‘very good’, up from 62% last year, and 35% scoring it as ‘good’. Nobody surveyed gave the festival an ‘average’ or negative rating.
The team conducting the evaluation, from Kendal-based Red Research, said 102 surveys were completed over the weekend, with groups representing 272 adults and 54 children. They discovered that the event gave the area a tourism boost, that more people were coming from outside the Cumberland area, and that a growing number of visitors brought their families.
Their report added: “Staying visitor groups were 9.8% of the sample. If this sample was representative, then an estimated 2,450 of the 25,000 attendees would be tourists from outside of Cumbria, staying overnight.
“There were more people at Taste Cockermouth with friends this year - 39% of visitors, almost double the figure in 2023. The number of groups with children has increased over the last two years. In 2024, 23% of groups included children, up from 19% in 2022 and 21% in 2023.”
Taste Cumbria now has a very loyal following - 57% of those surveyed said they had been to a previous festival, and 79% of those interviewed said they came to Cockermouth that weekend specifically for the event.
Those questioned by the researchers had lots of good things to say too. The report added: “People commented on the great atmosphere, they loved the music, the cooking demonstrations and the stalls. People said the event was well organised, and that it brings the town to life and is good for both the town and the community.”
Taste Cumbria in Cockermouth is a Cumberland Council event and was sponsored by Cockermouth Town Council, The Coffee Kitchen Bakery, Milburns Solicitors and supported by Tractorshed Brewery and RockWith.
Ellie Jones is Cumberland Council and Taste Cumbria’s event manager. She said: “We are incredibly happy to see that Taste Cumbria in Cockermouth delivered everything we hoped for, and that the economic impact of these festivals continues to rise. To hear that 99% of people would come back again is the icing on the cake.
“The Taste Cumbria events were created to keep Cockermouth on the map and give a massive economic boost after the floods which decimated the town 15 years ago this November. I think it is safe to say that we have succeeded in that challenge - and we’re putting other places on that map too, like Wigton, Maryport and, this November, Carlisle.
A huge thanks to our sponsors and supporters, our traders and the Cockermouth residents and businesses for making this the very best foodie date in everyone’s calendars.”
More Taste Cumbria events are planned this autumn and winter.
A Taste Carlisle event will be held in the Cathedral grounds on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 November. Followed by a Taste Christmas event in Cockermouth on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 December.
More information is available at https://visitallerdale.co.uk/taste-cumbria-home/