Unboxed: Under budget and on time, but was the cultural festival unloved?

Last year's Unboxed cultural festival came in under its £120m budget and brought financial benefit to the UK, according to a new report.

It was announced by Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018 to celebrate British creativity following Brexit.

But the festival was dogged by claims of low visitor numbers and engagement.

Culture minister Stuart Andrew said the evaluation report showed the "positive impact" of Unboxed, but Labour said the festival "largely fell on its face".

Damian Green MP, whose select committee previously called it an "irresponsible use of public money", said he disagreed with the report's "extraordinary" positive findings.

Unboxed was a UK-wide programme of 10 free projects that launched in early 2022.

They included a decommissioned North Sea offshore rig turned into an art installation in Weston-super-Mare, the story of humanity projected onto buildings in a string of towns and cities, and the Tower of London using cutting-edge technology and music. In total, events took place at 107 locations.

But Unboxed never managed to shake off its initial unofficial nickname, the Festival of Brexit. It also struggled after reports said it hoped to reach 66 million people, which was later termed a "stretch target" by those behind the festival.

Its cost, funded by governments in the four nations of the UK, was four times that of the Platinum Jubilee. Organisers argued its large-scale nationwide projects could not be compared with that event.

In an earlier report, the DCMS committee criticised the government for wasting money on a festival whose "aims were vague and ripe for misinterpretation". MPs on the parliamentary committee asked the National Audit Office (NAO) to investigate.

In a report last December, the public spending watchdog said it didn't have the figures available to draw a conclusion about whether the festival had been value for money.

Today's independent report was commissioned on behalf of the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments and the Northern Ireland Executive.

It said the festival cost £103.1m and the "monetisable benefits", which includes money spent in the UK economy and investment in jobs, were worth £175.5m - a net gain of £72.4m to the UK economy.

Based on a combination of Unboxed's audience monitoring and third-party data, a total audience of 20.5 million people engaged across the UK, according to the report. It said:

Mr Andrew said the report showed the "positive impact" of Unboxed, which "brought people across the UK together in a celebration of science, the arts and creativity - touching the lives of millions".

Some have previously questioned whether the nearly nine million people who tuned in to TV programmes, including a BBC Countryfile special, should be counted.

But Unboxed's organisers argued that its remit was to reach as wide an audience as possible, including on broadcast platforms.

Executive director Phil Batty conceded the Festival of Brexit term had been a "challenge", but said the evaluation showed "we delivered on time and on budget, with this data demonstrating Unboxed delivered value for money and the different events were incredible when you went and experienced them".

"That's what matters," he added, pointing out that one project, About Us, got the same number of visitors over 35 days outside London as four days at the Tower of London.

"If you believe arts and culture have to be accessible across the UK, you have to accept that you have to work hard and commit investment into local communities."

Mr Green, who now chairs the DCMS Committee, told the BBC: "As a proposed great national festival, it clearly did not engage mass public enthusiasm, partly because of its lack of an obvious focus.

"We have done superb large-scale events in recent years, including the Olympics and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Sadly Unboxed was not in that league."

Shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell said the festival largely failed "despite the huge opportunity for the country", adding that the government "should learn lessons from this £120m failure".

Organisers say the legacy of the festival will live on even though Unboxed itself ended last year.

One of its programmes, Dreamachine, which brought Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble together with Grammy-nominated musician Jon Hopkins, scientists and others, will tour later this year.

Our Place In Space, a large-scale model of the solar system and sculpture trail, has just been at the Ulster Transport Museum in Belfast and the North Down Coastal path.

Dame Vikki Heywood, chair of the Unboxed board, said: "With many legacy activities already under way, I look forward to seeing how Unboxed projects build on the impact of the programme for years to come."