Rugby Festival Of Culture

Rugby Festival of Culture is supported by Rugby First and Rugby Borough Council and has been successful for the past 2 years.

Rugby Festival of Culture takes place in Rugby Town Centre, giving a fantastic platform for musicians, comics, dancers, artists, writers, actors and singers to showcase their talents and be a part of Rugby Town Centres biggest and most popular event.

For more information about Rugby Festival of Culture, visit the dedicated website at; www.rugbyfestivalofculture.co.uk

Rugby Town Centre Videos

Rugby First has created a range of videos, covering the main events in Rugby Town Centre.

Click here for more

Other Services

Rugby First promotes the town centre and its businesses throughout the year with a wide and diverse marketing programme that includes advertising in the local newspapers and radio stations through to an on-going PR campaign to highlight events, initiatives and new businesses in the town centre.

Marketing also includes a mixture of one-off events, such as St Georges Day celebrations, through to more sustained campaigns over longer periods such as Christmas that are used to encourage greater footfall in the town centre.

Our marketing campaigns include:

Generating positive PR...

Rugby First issues press releases to the local media on a regular basis to promote the various events and marketing activities throughout the year.

News stories about the work of the Rangers, the CCTV control room as well as partnership building are also sent out to highlight the positive impact the BID has on our town centre.

St George's Day – biggest celebration in Warwickshire...

The one day event to mark St George's Day has grown into the biggest in the county with businesses, local school children and visitors all getting involved with the huge range of activities and displays laid on and we plan to continue this into the future.

Christmas celebrations grow year-on-year...

Every year Rugby First promotes Christmas in the town centre.

Celebrations have grown year-on-year and include everything from Santa's Grotto and a Christmas Tree Festival through to the annual Christmas lights switch on by the Mayor of Rugby.

Rugby First also works with Rugby Borough Council to bring in free parking in the run up to Christmas to encourage more shoppers into the town.

SMILE Loyalty Scheme...

Rugby First recently launched the SMILE loyalty Scheme to help encourage greater footfall in the town centre and support local businesses as we move into the future.

The scheme will continue and hopes to build on the success it has already achieved. In the first six months more than 4,500 customers signed up to receive their card and more than 75 businesses are offering unique discounts to SMILE shoppers every month.

Rugby Town Gift Voucher

Rugby Town Gift Vouchers are the perfect present for friends and family and can be used in over 60  shops in town.

The gift vouchers can be purchased from the website as well as the Visitors Centre at the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum and are available as £5, £10 and £20 vouchers. With so many fantastic shops accepting these vouchers, anyone who receives one will be in for a real shopping treat.

Reacting to major national and international events...

Rugby First will be flying the flag, quite literally, for rugby football events, including the World Cup and the Six Nations tournament, when a display of flags from the playing nations will be erected along the Dunchurch Road in front of the Webb Ellis statue. This scheme costs £40,000 and was paid for by Rugby Borough Council and Rugby First.

This will once again inform the world that this is where the game was born. We hope this will encourage people to come and visit our town and spend their tourist dollars in our shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants.

We will also be looking at promotional ideas for other major events including the 2012 Olympics, the Queen's Jubilee and the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Marking annual occasions...

Every year the BID uses annual special occasions including Valentines Day, Mothers Day and Easter to create specific marketing campaigns aimed at increasing footfall in the town centre.

Promotions have included leaflet drops to local residents publicising special offers, getting local schools involved in activities in the town centre whether it's an Easter colouring competition or making a dragon for St George's Day, producing posters for each campaign focusing on encouraging people to 'shop local' and additional marketing of town centre car parks.