Organisers of Lancaster Music Festival explained how they estimated a 70,000 attendance at the event after another festival promoter challenged the figure.
A festival spokesperson said the number was "cumulative across the four-day festival and not necessarily unique visitors".
This came after Rich Dyer, organiser of the Highest Point Festival, sent an open letter to Lancaster Music Festival and Beyond Radio querying the estimated figure of 70,000, which was announced on Monday.
Related Story: Lancaster Music Festival attendance estimated as 70,000 - Beyond Radio
Mr Dyer said: "As the organiser of the Highest Point music festival which takes place every May in Williamson Park in Lancaster, I of course welcome any musical events to the city to keep the scene thriving.
"I do wonder though how the figure of 70,000 people attending was reached.
"When we bring 10,000 people (per day) to the park it includes significant road diversions, sold out accommodation city wide, and a huge amount of infrastructure to accommodate the people safely within the confides of Williamson Park (including a significant security operation at the end of the evening to ensure everyone gets home safely).
"Certainly over the weekend we see approximately 35,000 visitors over four days, however a number of those are repeat customers so to speak who attend more than one day of the event.
"I understand Lancaster Music Festival operates differently, however if we were to attribute 70,000 people across two days then we would be looking at an average of 700 people per venue, something which I was not aware the town had 50 venues that held 700 people. "Ultimately when an event is funded with public money, I feel it only right to ask the question how the 70,000 figure was reached and verified before chosen to be published.
"Indeed 70,000 people is the size of Leeds Festival and the impact of that many people even on a city the size of Leeds is certainly noticed!"
Pictured below are crowds at Highest Point Festival.
A spokesperson for Lancaster Music Festival sent us this response.
"Lancaster Music Festival uses a number of methods to estimate footfall at the festival, including Lancaster BID’s footfall cameras in the city centre and venues reporting attendance figures and turnover.
"The footfall is cumulative across the four-day festival and not necessarily unique visitors.
"As a comparison, Light Up Lancaster, similarly publicly funded, estimated 55,700 visitors over just two days in 2021 and without the fireworks being on."
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