case study 1

140,000 people party in the streets of Luton

Think of Luton and you'll probably think of hats and car plants. Yet Luton Borough Council has for years organised a street carnival that has grown to a huge, multicultural event with an estimated 100,000 visitors from all over the UK. For 1999, the Council wanted to make its Carnival even more successful, and achieve its rightful place on the international carnival map.

Held over the late May Bank Holiday, the Carnival is thought to be the largest one-day carnival in Britain. We were asked to help raise its profile amongst the public and make it as much of a household name as the Notting Hill Carnival.

Two of the most prominent features of Luton International Carnival are its appeal to children and the diverse range of cultures involved, reflecting the multicultural nature of the population of Luton itself. We honed in on these features, and approached Blue Peter with details of the children's involvement, and the ethnic press with specially targeted stories from food to costumes. To raise the overall awareness of the Carnival we also contacted all the listings magazines for London - Luton is only a 30 minute train journey from London King's Cross.

As the area's best kept secret, we knew that bringing the Carnival to the national arena would be difficult, but the success was amazing. Blue Peter invited 30 children from Luton to participate in a programme aired a couple of weeks before the event, who appeared in spectacular costumes at intervals throughout the show. Ethnic publications including Asian, Caribbean and Greek newspapers covered aspects of the Carnival and it appeared in national listings in The Guardian's Saturday Guide, Evening Standard Hot Tickets and Time Out's Summer Festival Guide. Local Government Today carried a story about the Council's preparations for the Carnival.

Around 140,000 people visited the Carnival on the 31 May Bank Holiday – an increase of 40 per cent on the year before!