Festival fever has hit Hillsborough -but for local pubs and cafes, the buzz of Tramlines just feels more like background noise.
Every year, Tramlines Festival – hosted at Hillsborough Park – sees thousands of visitors flood in to enjoy a variety of Sheffield’s finest rock and indie punk. While footfall multiplies, the same cannot be said for revenue – according to local eateries along Middlewood Road.
With festival-goers being ‘streamlined’ into the event, finances allocated across the city and visitors unable to leave the festival, many business owners operating along Hillsborough’s own ‘high street’ feel as though they have ‘lost out twice.’
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Janine Lawson, landlady of The Hillsborough Tap, explained that her staff are tired of dealing with ‘chaos’ brought in by visitors, without the compensation of revenue. Janine said: “We deal with all the upset and all the mess without being noticed.”
Prior to COVID, visitors were able to leave the festival – a rule which has not be reinstated. On top of this already ‘incredibly frustrating’ change, organisers trying to shuffle the large number of people into the festival safely mean that a-lot of small businesses are completely by-passed.
Janine, who’s pub is right on the corner near Middlewood, said: “It’s an ongoing battle. The footfall is just not there. It doesn’t help that now safety advisory groups have gotten stewards directing people straight past Bradfield road, so they miss out on all of the small businesses down Middlewood.
Janine Lawson, Landlady of The Hillsborough Tap, explained the footfall of Tramlines doesn’t mean an increase in revenue -Credit:Lyra Auld
“It feels like we are being fought in both directions. Finances have been put into towards the the city centre Fringe events – so our customers are going there and then visitors go straight to Tramlines and we lose out twice.”
Efforts have been made to salvage the revenue of some of the shops. ‘Little Hillsborough’ in the Tramlines Festival offers free stalls to a small number of selected businesses . However there is a catch – they cannot serve food or drinks including alcohol, as they choose specific vendors – completely writing off Janine and her pub.
Janine said: “I also can’t have my doors open, as my license won’t let me play music otherwise.”
Inconsistencies in ‘We Are Open’ signs over the years means Janine’s pub ends up being missed altogether. Janine said: “You would be surprised – the year that it flooded and everything smelled like farm, we took in loads – probably because people left early. From then, we are down about 40 per cent in visitors.”
Lucy Poplawski, co-owner of Molly’s Café and Deli is another eatery that has had to adapt to the Tramlines festival – making plans every year such as special festival menu deals to try and draw in customers. While her family love the festival, having experienced it’s previous open door policy, Lucy explained footfall was better when people could come and go.
Lucy said: “We opened the day before lockdown in 2020. We have got a fabulous community around us and they are really supportive. We have experienced both Tramlines – when people could come and go and when people were closed off.
Molly’s Café and Deli make special menus in preparation for the Festival -Credit:Lyra Auld
“It was far far better when people could come and go. It was more family orientated and it worked really well – but obviously after COVID it stopped.
“It’s still a fabulous event – we get excited and get the Deli dressed up, we get craft beers and we still get a lot of regulars. It’s a really good feel but we would love it if a few more could come in and out.”
In response, Sheffield City Council said that the event was privately organised, so they couldn’t do much to help the problem.
A spokesperson from Tramlines explained that several measures had been put in to boost the profile of local venues, including venues serving food and drink, as much as possible. They said there were several campaign methods being used to bring in as much revenue to local businesses as possible.
The spokesperson said: “The Hillsborough Tap are currently listed on our website as one of our ‘Hillsborough Hotspots'” – a page on their website dedicated to local venues, alongside Molly’s Café and Deli.
“Tramlines has raised significant funds for ‘Hillsborough Together’ an organisation that Janine Lawson directs and when launching our line-up, Tramlines placed bespoke bottles of ‘Hendos’ in Hillsborough businesses which were given to customers as a novel way of launching the lineup and driving traffic to their shops.”
Staff at The Hillsborough Tap are worried about the footfall of customers during Tramlines Festival -Credit:Lyra Auld
The spokesperson also referenced the 2025 Tramlines ‘More Than a Festival: Tramlines 2025 Backs Local People, Projects and Places’ plan’, which included little Hillsborough: “Little Hillsborough offers festivalgoers the chance to discover unique items, meet independent makers and engage with local organisations as part of the wider weekend experience and hopefully, they’ll keep coming back to Hillsborough throughout the year.
“In this same vein, Tramlines is also encouraging people to visit Hillsborough businesses in advance of the event through their, ‘Hillsborough Hotspots’, campaign.”
You can join our Tramlines Festival Facebook group to get the latest gossip about the event.
You can find the latest event news in Yorkshire and nearby by visiting our What’s On homepage. There you can also find days out guides for things to do across the region.
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