ANNUAL REPORT 2024
A YEAR IN REVIEW
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
LOWTHER PAVILION THEATRE & GARDENS
Set in the beautiful Lowther Gardens in Lytham St Annes, we have a proud history of serving the Fylde Coast and surrounding areas as a cultural hub since 1921.
We’re proud to have welcomed a variety of artists from Jason Manford to Jenny Eclair, or Belinda Carlise to Rick Wakeman over the years to create a programme of events that really punches above our weight.
This year, we’ve been nominated for the Lancashire Tourism Awards in the categories of Cultural Venue of the Year and Small Event of the Year (Lowther’s Folk, Roots & Maritime Festival).
“Excellent selection of shows. There really is something for everyone. Bookings can be made at the theatre, over the phone or via the website. Beautiful theatre, gardens and great parking. We regularly check for new shows and are impressed every time we visit.”
“Excellent selection of shows. There really is something for everyone. Bookings can be made at the theatre, over the phone or via the website. Beautiful theatre, gardens and great parking. We regularly check for new shows and are impressed every time we visit.”
“Experienced the best pantomime ever - possibly the best live show ever! We laughed from start to finish. The costumes and scenery were superb and every performer deserves credit.”
“Experienced the best pantomime ever - possibly the best live show ever! We laughed from start to finish. The costumes and scenery were superb and every performer deserves credit.”
Discos For Grownups (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Pumpkins in the Park (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
NOTABLE EVENTS
OVERVIEW
Over the last year, we staged over 480 unique shows and events.
Some particular highlights include:
Some particular professional show highlights include:
•Chris McCausland: Yonks! Thu 2 May 2024
•Johnny Hates Jazz Sat 11 Mar 2024
•Sinatra RAW with the Syd Lawrence Orchestra Mon 17 May 2024
•Malin Makes Music Mon 20 May 2024
•Daniel Cainer’s Jewish Chronicles Mon 29 July 2024
•Wonders of the Universe Tue 30 July 2024
•Clinton Baptiste: Roller Ghoster Sun 15 Sept 2024
•Su Pollard: Still Fully Charged Sun 13 October 2024
•Ronnie Foster Mon 14 Oct 2024
•An Evening Without Kate Bush Mon 28 Oct 2024
•The Lightning Seeds Thu 7 Nov 2024
•Snow White - A Christmas Panto 2024/25 From Mon 2 Dec 2024
•A Christmas Night at the Opera Mon 2 Dec 2024
•The Unthanks Wed 4 Dec 2024
Teach Rex Live (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Lowther’s Folk, Roots & Maritime Festival. Photo by Jac Brown.
AUDIENCE
OVERVIEW
Our audience is always changing thanks to the variation of our programming.
Over the last 12 months, we’ve noticed:
•Ticket sales totalling around £2 million.
•We sold over 95k tickets
•Just over 58k of tickets were purchased as Print at Home/E-Ticket, while more than 27k were collected physically at Box Office.
•More than 66k of tickets were purchased via our website with around 27k purchased in-person, and 1,700 purchased over the phone.
•Around 40k of our customers booked more than 8 weeks in advance.
•Only around 40% of our audience come from a Fylde Coast postcode.
Data captured from our Box Office CRM.
Pumpkins in the Park (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
OUR REACH OVERVIEW
We continue to work hard to extend our reach , and it’s over the last 12 months that we’ve been able to attract people from over 800 different postcodes.
Offline, we’ve:
Printed and distributed roughly 45k brochures
Changed around 2k posters
Online, we’ve:
•Sent 2 million emails to our customers, which have been opened 1.3 million times.
•Had 3.2 million visits to our website
•Reached over 700k people on Facebook
•Reached 109k people on Instagram
We’ve also recently joined additional social media platforms including TikTok and Bluesky.
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
OUR REACH GOOGLE ADWORDS
Since 2022, we’ve established a successful Google AdWords campaign. This is a paid campaign managed by National World.
Over the last 12 months we’ve spent around £6,500 on our paid Google AdWords campaign, which has seen a return on investment with:
•Over 100k in key events
•
•92k total link clicks
•200k total impressions
•86% of clicks came from people seeing the advert on their mobile
We’ve also recently been approved by Google to join their Charity programme, which grants us $10,000 per month of text-based adverts.
Teach Rex Live (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
SNOW WHITE OVERVIEW
This year’s pantomime, Snow White became our most financially successful show to ever perform on our stage. Produced by Paul Holman Associates, we saw a 25% increase in ticket sales when compared to Jack and the Beanstalk in 2023.
Over 16k people came to see the panto across 42 performances.
Snow White saw us:
•Hit over 7,800 lighting cues
•Play over 12k sound effects and video cues
•Hand out around 10,000 free souvenir programmes
•Sell around 430 of light up wands & merchandise
•Sell over 3,500 Lakes Ice Creams
By the end of 2024, we’d already sold over 30k tickets for this year's pantomime, Peter Pan.
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
SNOW WHITE FEEDBACK
“Absolutely brilliant! My Granddaughter loved it so much. She was shouting at the Evil Queen and the Ghost. She laughed when she was sprayed with water, and even danced at the end. Well done to the excellent panto team and, of course, the staff and volunteers too.”
“Brilliant, funny, entertaining - first class.”
“I brought 14 members of the Friendship Group. The production was high quality, and great pace. Can’t wait for the next one! One member of the group has been with us for over 12 months to get them to speak, and open up more. Well yesterday the magic dust landed on him and he even sang! He was so animated. Thank You! There’s no going back nowhe even wants to visit again.”
“The show was the best we’ve seen and we’ve been attending the Panto at Lowther for many years.”
“We had an absolutely brilliant afternoon seeing Snow White. From the moment it started to the end, we were captivated. The cast were all excellent and worked very hard to engage the audience. A good time was had by all. Keep up the good work.”
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
LOWTHER CREATIVES OVERVIEW
Over the last 12 months, we’ve continued to build on the work of our Education programme, Lowther Creatives. It’s through our Youth Theatre Director/Education Officer, that we’re able to offer young people and adults the chance to develop skills, build confidence and meet new people.
•During school term times, we delivered 366 participatory workshops with youth theatre, home education, adult theatre and early years.
•In July, 11 young people aged 7-16 joined our Summer Film School, led by UCLan Lecturer and Filmmaker Ed Greenberg. After 36 hours of intensive tuition, we created 10 films, with young people as directors, writers, camera operators, actors and sound recordists.
We worked with 60 home schooled children and young people aged 4 - 23 years old, providing a safe space for child-centred learning and opportunities for parents to connect and support one another.
LOWTHER CREATIVES OVERVIEW CONTINUED
•In the school holidays, Lowther Pavilion Theatre provided HAF (Holiday Activities with Food) sessions to benefit young people eligible for free school meals in Fylde. This year included 149 sessions with 24 young people over the Summer. We arranged food and seats in the audience for 140 people from eligible families at our Christmas pantomime.
•Alongside our drama workshops, we also welcomed:
•We also work with people aged 14+ on our our Technical Theatre course run by our in-house technicians.
“[He] has had a great year at youth theatre. It’s his haven of make believe when other activities and school cause stress and anxiety. Thank you for your encouragement and endless patience.”
COMMUNITY ARTS
OVERVIEW
We regularly provide a space for local, amateur dramatic groups and performing arts schools to present their shows. These groups include:
•Rainbow Dance & Theatre School (Sleeping Beauty
•AKS (Sweeney Todd)
•NW1 Theatre School (Beauty and the Beast, High School Musical, Wizard of Oz)
•Fylde Coast Players (Arsenic and Old Lace, Blackadder 2
•The Sound of Musical Theatre Company (Les Miserables
•St Annes Musical Productions (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
•Sparkle Dance (Once Upon a Dance)
•MSC (Take the Stage - A night of Musical Theatre
•Junction 4 (Young Frankenstein)
•Kidz 4 Kidz (Dance Roulette)
•Clifton Academy (The Academy Showcase)
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
IN THE GARDENS OVERVIEW
We welcome thousands of visitors into our award-winning gardens. It’s by entering our gates that visitors can experience:
•250 different plants and flowers
•Five annual, free to enter festivals throughout the year (Lowther’s Easter Surprise, Lowther’s Ice Cream Festival, Lowther’s Folk, Roots & Maritime Festival, and Lowther’s Pumpkins in the Park).
•Three padel tennis courts
•A mini-golf course designed by our Gardeners
•A brand-new, Alice in Wonderland themed playground
•A summer programme of Drive-in cinema screenings (Barbie, Wonker, The Dam Busters, Roman Holiday)
•Outdoor theatre performances (Triple Arts Academy, Pendle Productions, The Dukes Theatre Company and Four Forty Theatre)
•A free, bespoke activity pack designed in-house
Our gardens also won two special awards at the North West in Bloom awards: The Discretionary Award for Parks & Green Spaces, and Gold in the Best Small Park (Local Authority) alongside Ashton Gardens.
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
by Jac
Photo
Brown.
IN THE GARDENS
LOWTHER’S FOLK, ROOTS & MARITIME FESTIVAL
In 2024, we launched a brand new festival focused (for the first time) around live music. The two day event welcomed performances from over 21 artists including 9 Morris Dance teams.
Performances included:
•Iona Lane
•Katie Spencer
•Martin Carthy
•Harp & A Monkey
•Steve Canavan
•Kind Hearted Thieves
•& more!
Our inaugural Folk, Roots & Maritime Festival was free to attend to encourage people to try something different. Since the event, our paid, bi-monthly Folk Club has seen an increase in sales of around 30%.
The event was also shortlisted for Small Event of the Year at this year’s Lancashire Tourism Awards.
Our outdoor Folk Festival is set to return in 2026.
Lowther’s Folk & Roots Maritime Festival. Photography by Jac Brown
Lowther’s Folk & Roots Maritime Festival. Photo by Jac Brown
IN THE GARDENS
THE TENT
Back in the Summer of 2023, we presented The Tent - a temporary community marquee out in our gardens. This proved to be a massive success with local groups using The Tent as an exhibition, rehearsal and event space.
Following that success, The Tent returned this summer, running Saturday 20 July until Sunday 25 August 2024 with the free-to-hire space being used by a variety of community groups including:
•Connect Community Choir
•Electric Pink voices LGBTQ+ Choir
•Hayhouses Choir
•Fylde Coast Players
•The Friends of Lowther Pavilion
•& more
Lowther’s Ice Cream Festival (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Lowther’s Ice Cream Festival (202$). Photo by Jac Brown.
IN THE GARDENS
SUMMER OUTDOOR THEATRE
From June to August 2024, we welcomed thousands of people into our gardens to experience the thrill of live theatre. These paid performances included:
•Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy
•As You Like It by The Dukes Theatre Company
•A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Twelfth Night by Four Forty Theatre
•Pinocchio by Pendle Productions
•The Secret Garden by Pendle Production
•Cinderella by Pendle Productions
•The Wizard of Oz by Pendle Productions
•Alice in Wonderland by Pendle Productions
“We all loved the afternoon! It was very organised and professional, and we were very lucky with the weather.”
“The show was excellent. I couldn't fault it. Thoroughly entertaining. I came to the production last year with my husband so this year brought 5 others along too!”
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
Beatrix Potter by Triple Arts Academy (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
AS A CHARITY OVERVIEW
Did you know that we are a Registered Charity, no 1117054?
Over the last 12 months, we’ve had £352k in donations, with some of that money being broken down across:
•Over 530 bluebells purchased through our Remember Me campaign
•10 names were added to of names added to the Band of Names
•22 seats sponsored in The Main House and The Chapman Studio auditoriums
•£1,500 in donations to the 2024 Summer of FUNdraising campaign
“I donated to support the local theatre and the excellent work done by the staff and volunteers!”
“I love the Lowther Pavilion Theatre & Gardens and just want to see it succeed and continue!”
“Having moved from Manchester and attending those theatres, we wanted a new local theatre. We love the Lowther, it’s so wonderfully homely and friendly. It’s now our theatre.”
Bluebells Planting
Photo by Tim Lince.
Lowther’s Ice Cream Festival (2024). Photo by Jac Brown.
AS A CHARITY FUNDRAISERS
Summer of FUNDraising
Anthony, our Head of Marketing, and Colin, our Administrator, both took part in physical activities for a second year. Anthony completed the 12k Total Warrior obstacle run, while Colin flew over to France and ran the Marathon du Médoc. Together, they helped to raise around £1,500 in donations.
Christmas Songs & Stories
Back for its second year, our Christmas Songs & Stories invited audiences to get into the festive spirit with a fabulous evening of carols featuring a range of community groups and choirs including: Electric Pink Voices, Defibril8, Connect Community Choir, Broughton Hand Bell Ringers, Heyhouses Community Choir, Fylde Coast Players, our Youth Theatre, and Adult Theatre group.
Lowther’s Milestone Ball
On Friday 7 March, we'll be hosting a fundraising ball to celebrate the completion of the first phase of our ambitious redevelopment campaign. This milestone, the completion of The Windmill Performance & Education Centre, is an incredible feat that needs to be celebrated. Attendees can expect food catered by The Villa in Wrea Green, performances from Touch The Pearl, and more.
Snow White (2024). Photo by Claire Griffiths.
AS A CHARITY OUR VOLUNTEERS
Our friendly team of active volunteers are an integral part of our success.
Whether it’s helping out on Box Office, distributing print, supporting workshops or helping in front of house roles for an event - we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them.
•We work with over 150 volunteers
•Across all our volunteer roles from front of house to technical support, they have donated around 27k hours of their time
•Their generously donated time equates to roughly £350k
“I called in at the ticket office today to book for a show and wow, the customer service was outstanding from the volunteer on the desk. She should be employed to educate people about the art of customer service.”
Photo by Jac Brown.
by Jac Brown.
Photography
AS A CHARITY
THE WINDMILL PERFORMANCE & EDUCATION CENTRE
If you’ve stood in our Edwardian garden, you’ll have seen that the last 12 months we’ve made incredible progress on the first phase of our redevelopment campaign. The Windmill Performance & Education Centre is our £3 million, state-of-the-art second venue, which will be home to:
•The Chapman Studio
•The Lions Community Space
•The outdoor classroom
In The Chapman Studio, our 162 seated or 350 standing auditorium, you’ll be able to expect live music, comedy, dance, community choirs, art groups, youth theatre, home education classes, writing and reading sessions, dementia groups, cinema screening, workshops and more!
Due to open in April 2025, we have already raised £2.8 million, but we still need your help to bring in the final £200,000 required to finish this new venue.
Every donation, whether £1 or £1000 brings us closer to creating a space where our community can learn, create and truly thrive.
Photo by Jac Brown.
Photo by Jac Brown.
AS A CHARITY OUR FUTURE
While we work on completing The Windmill Performance & Education Centre, we’re busy preparing for the next steps in our ambitious, three phase redevelopment campaign.
PHASE 2
Once The Windmill Performance & Education Centre is complete, our campaign moves to the back of our existing, original building. It’s here where we’ll see improved disability access to the stage, revamped dressing rooms and crucial first floor office space.
PHASE 3
This final phase will see us redesign our foyer space, cafe and bar. We’ll also be building up to include the much anticipated first floor restaurant, which will provide a dining experience with views out over the estuary.
Thank you to everyone who has donated over the last year and beyond - your support is incredibly important to us and helps us to remain at the heart of the Fylde Coast for generations to come.
We greatly acknowledge support from:
