Bosses of the £120 million “festival of Brexit” have insisted it is a success despite only three million people attending its live events.
Phil Batty, executive director of the festival called Unboxed, has defended the project as “very successful”.
He made the comments after it emerged only a few million people had visited its live events compared to a target of 66 million total engagements.
The taxpayer funded programme was initially dubbed the “Festival of Brexit” before becoming “Festival UK 2022” and then officially launched as: “UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK”.
Conceived by former prime minister Theresa May, the event was created to mark the UK’s departure from the EU.
Boris Johnson hailed the programme as a celebration of UK “ingenuity, energy, innovation, optimism and all-round creative genius”. He promised it would be “unlike anything else that has been seen before”.
Projects across the UK included See Monster, a decommissioned North Sea gas platform, and Our Place in Space, a model of the solar system.
Batty told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the 66 million target included online viewers too, adding that 18 million people took part in events overall, including those broadcast online and through virtual reality.
Batty said: “These cultural experiences have showcased the very best of science, the very best of tech and the very best of the arts through live and through digital.”
“66 million was never a visitor target for this programme,” he added.
“It was a creative ambition for the programme, it was an ambition because we wanted to be really inclusive for the whole of the UK, and I think we’ve delivered that.
“I believe it has been very successful because we’ve seen that whether that’s live events in towns and villages there’s been an economic boost, but also we’ve seen major free cultural projects provided to millions of people right across the UK, and that’s hugely important.”
However, the festival faces an inquiry by the National Audit Office - an independent parliamentary body - that will scrutinise its costs and management.
A cross-party parliamentary committee called for the investigation to “help get to the bottom of how so much taxpayer money could be frittered away for so little return”.
Tory MP Julian Knight, chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, described it as an “unadulterated shambles” after an investigation by the House magazine found that only 238,000 people had visited the projects.
It later emerged that this had been a measurement of trips to only a handful of the sites.
Batty added: “Designed to be accessible and inclusive to all, Unboxed has brought people together at live events throughout the UK, and through digital and broadcast content, achieving an audience of over 18 million, supporting 6,000 creative jobs through Covid and beyond and enjoyed by 1.7 million children, young people and families.”