Last year’s Amplify Norfolk initiative had a few stumbling blocks, but Norfolk County Council is committed to seeing their promise through.
The initiative was put into place to help the county attract tourists post-COVID, with special events that they would help fund. The biggest one last year was the rock concert at the fairgrounds, featuring the Beaches, Sloan, Finger Eleven, and Bif Naked, hitting the stage over two days.
Angela Hogeveen is the General Manager of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, which organized the show with funding from the county.
She provided our elected officials with data they gathered from this new experience.
While it was deemed a success, she did note it was not a breakout hit.
There were also other items councillors had issues with, considering how the 2023 event was laid out, and requested changes were made.
One of them was scrapping a coupon that tourists would get, depending on the distance they traveled, to use at local businesses.
The other was the many different grant ranges – with the provided funding, they were handing out grants to bring artists in and put on the event, but our elected officials questioned how much of a return they would be getting for these small $5K and $10K grants if the point of the project was to bring in tourists.
That was Councillor Chris Van Paassen.
Councillor Adam Veri made the suggestion of taking the smaller grants and combining them into two $40K and one $20K grand to entice bigger acts in 2024 and not put on smaller shows that will mostly cater to locals.
Councillor Alan Duthie also weighed in on the matter, noting that while the event may not have been an amazing financial success for the Agricultural Society on paper, there are just some positives that are hard to capture into solid data.
Mayor Amy Martin put forward the motion, with the noted changes, wanting to make sure they continue to guide these groups to put on these big events and bring people in, but noted there was a cut-off point.
The Agricultural Society said they look forward to working with the county in 2024.
Written by Matt LeBlanc