The River of Light festival in Liverpool has reportedly been the most successful ever following the release of a report on last year’s event. The 12-night light festival attracted double the number of visitors from previous years and was worth £18.9m to the local economy. The festival brought many benefits to local businesses, such as higher footfall with bars, restaurants and shops reporting an increase in sales. Many local businesses within Liverpool One saw impressive sales growth, with restaurants seeing a 22% increase in sales. The festival also saw a significant increase in footfall around the Church Street, Lord Street and Whitechapel areas throughout the duration of the event period, with just over 186,000 extra people recorded.
The report also showed that this rise in hotel occupancy rates compared to 2023, indicating a global need to take part in the festival. The audience responded to a survey, with 55% of attendees responding that they don’t attend any other cultural events or activity during the course of a year. While around 30% of those surveyed had never been to River of Light before, 83% responded that they are likely to return to Liverpool again.
The festival had 1.1 million views across their website – the site’s highest web traffic ever – with interests
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