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Revealed: How much did Dundee City Council spend on hosting Big Weekend?

The costs have been kept private until now.

Fans Alex Gray, Katie Leah, Cheryl Smith and Chantelle Smith get their photo taken at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson
Fans Alex Gray, Katie Leah, Cheryl Smith and Chantelle Smith get their photo taken at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson

The total spend by Dundee City Council on hosting Radio 1’s Big Weekend has finally been revealed.

More than 80,000 fans enjoyed three days of music from the likes of Lewis Capaldi, Niall Horan and the Jonas Brothers at Camperdown Park last May.

The event was deemed a huge success as revellers from across the UK descended on the city.

Dundee City Council committed public money to hosting the event, but at the time the cost was kept private after being agreed by councillors behind closed doors.

But after repeated Freedom of Information requests by The Courier, the outlay can now be revealed.

Total cost of council spend on Big Weekend Dundee

The local authority committed a total of £496,662 to hosting Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

More than half of that – £270,019 – was spent on transport, with shuttle buses running all weekend to ferry revellers to and from the city centre.

A further £160,243 was spent on crowd management and safety.

The council also spent £45,301 on on-site logistics and it committed £21,099 to communications, reporting and regulation.

The economic benefit to the city of hosting Big Weekend outweighed the costs significantly – with the event said to have been worth about £3.7 million to businesses.

Revellers lapping up music at Big Weekend. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson
Niall Horan was among the acts. Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson

A survey of revellers who attended Big Weekend also revealed what they thought of Dundee.

Councillor Steven Rome, fair work, economic growth and infrastructure convener, said: “The economic benefits to businesses in the city from all the visitors over this weekend are, I’m sure, obvious to everyone.

“However, there are also more intangible gains that come from events of this scale.

“Millions of people tuned in and watched or heard this event and from a publicity perspective, this was enormously successful for Dundee.

Council ‘open to future opportunities to host or attract events’

“The name recognition will have been a lasting boost to Dundee’s inbound tourism and builds on the recent positive international coverage of the city.”

Asked whether this level of spending could be committed to attracting more major events to Dundee in future, Mr Rome said: “While we are in a very difficult financial environment, we will continue to be open to future opportunities to attract/host events where there could be significant benefits to the city, and these will be decided on their own merits.”

In November, the council revealed a “push” to grow Dundee’s events sector over the next five years.

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