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93. Rotherham Events Evaluations 2025

In 2025, Rotherham became the world’s first Children’s Capital of Culture, an initiative that aims to celebrate young people and their creativity. It provided young people in Rotherham with a variety of opportunities to take part in culture with a focus upon local pride and creative skills. As part of this award, over the course of 2025, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council ran a variety of town centre events and festivals, ranging from Christmas Light Switch ons to celebrations of nature and sustainability.

Kada Research were commissioned by the Council to evaluate these events and conducted seven event evaluations across the course of the year, each commissioned and evaluated separately.

The events evaluated were primarily family-oriented with an emphasis on cultural and creative activities and performances and included:

  • Signals Festival Evaluation (February 2025) – Centred around promoting young musical talent in Rotherham.
  • Town Centre Events (March 2025) – Externally run events occurring weekly in Rotherham Town Centre in March 2025, offering a range of cultural, music and sport activities.
  • Roots Festival (March 2025) – A festival celebrating nature and sustainability, consisting of a carnival procession of local community groups.
  • WOW Festival (May 2025) – A festival celebrating women, girls, trans, and non-binary communities.
  • UPLIFT Festival (July-August 2025) – An urban sport and art festival spread across three days in the summer.
  • Plug in and Play Festival (October 2025) – Centred around encouraging children and families to play interactive, immersive and engaging games.
  • Christmas Lights Switch-on Event (November 2025) – A town centre Christmas Light Switch-on featuring seasonal entertainment and activities.

The evaluations aimed to assess the impact of the events including the perceptions of was attendees, stakeholders, and local businesses. Over 600 responses were received from attendees via in-person and online surveys. Numerous stakeholder interviews were conducted with both event delivery partners and artists involved in the events. Consultations were also conducted with local businesses, that were involved with or impacted by the events. Kada’s primary research captured information on the following:

  • The age profiles, social demographics, and travel methods of attendees.
  • How people found out about the events and whether they had been before.
  • Attendees spend and economic impact.
  • Overall festival experience.
  • Suggested improvements/changes for future events.
  • Young person feedback on perceptions of the events and Rotherham town centre.
  • Stakeholder views on event delivery, successes, and challenges.
  • Local businesses perceptions of the events and the impacts they have on high-street businesses.

Events frequently received a 90%+ satisfaction rate, and attendees often said they were likely to attend similar events. In addition to the presentation of the primary research findings Kada produced an economic impact assessment for each event, exploring the potential local economic impacts and well-being benefits generated through each event. When combining the total estimated economic benefits of each event, the seven events produced an estimated £1.6 million of benefits.

The evaluations demonstrated that town centre events in Rotherham are building a mix of retained visitors and attracting new visitors and concluded with a set of recommendations relating to delivery, impact, and future, to help the council to continue to deliver a programme of successful and growing events.