A performer at Coventry’s revamped summer festival has criticised low audience numbers and the way the event was organised, after the traditional Godiva Festival was scrapped earlier this year.
The city council cancelled the long-running Godiva Festival in February. In its place, a scaled-back event called Godiva in the City ran across Saturday and Sunday.
Singer KANDA, whose real name is Sachin Kanda, was among those booked to perform, but said he was left disappointed by how the weekend unfolded.
“I was very disappointed in how it went in general,” he said. “You automatically assume that because it’s a free event, people would jump at that.”
The 22-year-old, who has performed on major stages including The O2 Arena and at the MOBO Awards Initiation Ceremony, and has worked with South Asian artists and producers including Panjabi MC and Dr Zeus, said he was only confirmed as a performer 10 days before the festival, leaving little time to promote his slot.
“I didn’t get time to promote it, they didn’t put me on their post until about five days before the event,” he said.
KANDA said crowds were thin throughout the weekend, even for headline act Chip, the rapper formerly known as Chipmunk.
“We all know Chipmunk. To have a free event, where he’s the headliner and even he can’t manage to pull over a hundred people, is crazy to me,” he said. “When it got to my time, the organiser said to me this was the biggest attendance apart from Chipmunk. That was mental to me.”
He also raised concerns about the ticketing set-up, saying attendees were sent back and forth across the city to collect wristbands before reaching the stages.
“I didn’t understand the ticketing system at all. I understand needing to know audience numbers, but to place things where they did, get your wristbands from one side of the city centre only to put the stages on the other side basically was mad,” he said. “As a music consumer, I wouldn’t want to go through a hassle of going here and there to get in for a free performance.”
According to the council, all 10,000 free tickets for the main stages had been claimed ahead of the event, but Saturday saw a higher-than-expected number of no-shows. Extra tickets were later released to boost crowd numbers on the Sunday.
The council said the pattern was common at free ticketed events nationally, where people reserve a place but do not turn up.
Councillor John McNicholas said residents were still feeling the effects of the rising cost of living, and acknowledged the turnout issues.
“Like many free ticketed events, we saw a number of people who’d reserved a ticket not attend on the day,” he said. “That meant some performances didn’t always have the crowd numbers we wanted or expected, and it’s a lesson for us as we plan future events – including how we manage ticket allocation and reminders to make sure as many people as possible take up their place.”
However, he defended the wider event, saying:
“I don’t want that one issue to overshadow a first Godiva in the City that delivered on so many levels.”
The council is now asking everyone who attended to complete a post-event survey, which it says will help shape the festival “into the event Coventry deserves.” The survey is available on the Godiva Festival website.
