Staffordshire Cycling Festival seeks crowdfunding finance (+ video)

Organisers of the Staffordshire Cycling Festival, which sees its third edition this year, are turning to crowdfunding to help finance the event.

Held on Friday 3 and Saturday 4 July, the programme includes three professional races, two sportives, a balance bike challenge and a mass participation ride in the county town, Stafford.

The first day takes place in Stafford itself, with the second based at Shugborough Hall, the nearby estate managed by the National Trust.

According to a pitch on Crowdfunder.co.uk by organiser Paul Rowlands of Leadout Cycling Ltd, the event costs more than £100,000 to stage. He is seeking funding of £5,000 towards that.

That cost of staging the event, financed mainly from sportive entry fees and sponsorship from local businesses, is mainly spent on infrastructure plus the costs of closing roads and managing traffic for the event.

Other examples of expenditure include £100 for race numbers, £500 for clothing for volunteers staffing the event, £2,000 for the prize fund for one of the races and £3,500 for signage.

Rowlands says: “The idea of paying to watch a bike race is a new one outside of Velodromes, but we know you value the sport we work hard to provide for you.

“A small contribution can go a huge distance in helping is to deliver and grow the exciting spectacle the Staffordshire Cycling Festival has become. We're hoping to raise just 5 per cent of the event budget directly from spectators and fans of the event.

“If you're one of those who help to make up that 5 per cent, we can't thank you enough.”

A variety of rewards are on offer for various levels of funding as follows:

£10 or more – We'll send you a personal tweet thanking you for your support.

£20 or more – With your permission, we'll list you as a supporter of the event on our event website and send you a copy of the official event programme.

£50 or more – We'll send you an official programme and a bottle of our official festival ale courtesy of Lymestone Brewery so you can toast the event on the big day!

£300 or more – Come along and drop the flag to start the Stafford Grand Prix on the 3rd July.

£600 or more – Come and present the champagne to the winners of the Stafford Grand Prix on 3rd July.

It’s not the first cycling event in Britain to have sought crowdfunding support to help pay for it.

As we reported at the weekend, the Bristol Grand Prix succeeded in hitting it £8,000 target, also on Crowdfunder.