Nationwide festival which attracted thousands to Paisley branded 'colossal waste of money'

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A festival which brought 50,000 visitors to Paisley was yesterday branded a “colossal waste of money”.About Us – which enjoyed a six-night run at Paisley Abbey – saw the 850-year-old landmark building lit up alongside live music and poetry.Held in March, the showcase was part of a UK-wide festival called UnBoxed – a £120 million initiative which aimed to celebrate UK creativity with a series of events held throughout the year.But MP Julian Knight, chair of the UK Parliament’s digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) Committee, said it has proven to be a “colossal waste of money”.Renfrewshire Council told the Express yesterday afternoon that the Paisley event had been “well attended” and “well received”.The MP was speaking out as the total audience figures for the nationwide Unboxed showed just 2.8m people attended live events.Renfrewshire Live, the new free app dedicated to bringing you around the clock breaking news, is now available to download.Powered by the Paisley Daily Express, Renfrewshire Live is your go-to source for news, features and sport with live coverage provided direct to the app, seven days a week.The dedicated team of experienced journalists, responsible for the publication of the award-winning Express, will focus on breaking news, day and night, across Renfrewshire’s towns and villages.There is also a dedicated St Mirren section that will follow every kick of the ball with the Buddies.Available on both Android and Apple.

Download here: smarturl.it/RenfrewLiveSocialA further 13.5m engaged with the project’s online and on TV programmes but it had a target of reaching 66m people.Mr Knight said: “These final figures only confirm the committee in its view that UnBoxed has been a failure and, rightly, the