This year’s Southport Food and Drink Festival really whetted the appetite of the public with data released today showing it attracted bumper crowds and generated almost £900,000 for the local economy.
Around 40,000 people flocked to the tasty annual extravaganza at Victoria Park in Southport which allowed visitors to enjoy three days of “tasty treats and activities” from around 150 traders, producers and exhibitors between Friday, 30th May and Sunday, 1st June 2025.
The event not only offered foods from across the globe, family-friendly fun activities but a new Experience Marquee giving people the chance to sign up for special experiences such as cheese and wine and beer and whisky tasting and cake decorating masterclasses.
And new data crunched by North West Research (NWR) on behalf of festival organisers Sefton Council reveals the huge economic and tourism benefits of this year’s event.
The analysis revealed that the estimated overall economic impact of the food event was £894,224.
The analysis also found:
- An overwhelming 99% of respondents said they would recommend the event to others and a whopping 98% of non-Southport attendees were either “very likely” or “quite likely” to return to the festival in future.
- Average total spend was £23.98 for residents of Sefton, £36.68 for day visitors and £180.25 for staying visitors.
- Almost a fifth of respondents said they would be shopping during their visit (14%) and 13% indicated they would be eating out during their visit.
- Using a sliding scale from 1 (Very Poor) to 5 (Very Good) the majority of event features were rated very positively, with at least 80% of respondents giving a score of 4 or 5. The highest-rated elements were overall enjoyment (mean score 4.82), event organisation and staff (4.80), and event quality (4.76).
- People of all ages flocked to the event and the higher proportion of visitors were aged 35 to 44 (18%), reflecting the event’s appeal to families.
- The majority of people attending said accessing the event was “very easy” or “moderately easy”.
- More than a quarter (27.9%) of Southport residents quizzed said they have attended the festival more than three times before, while elsewhere in Merseyside it was 10% and elsewhere the North West 35.6%.
- Event data found 78% of attendees were from the Liverpool City Region, including 57% from Sefton – while 19% came from elsewhere in the North West, and 3% from other parts of the UK.
Councillor Paulette Lappin, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Economy and Skills, said: “This year’s Southport Food and Drink Festival has once again shown how special it is, attracting tens of thousands of visitors and giving a fantastic boost to our local economy. It’s wonderful to see so many families and visitors returning year after year, and we’re already putting plans in place to make next year’s festival even bigger and better.
“I’d encourage everyone to keep an eye out for dates for 2026 as we build on this success and continue the tradition that first began in 2007.”
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