Yorkshire pub earns £14,000 through talent show

The Ainsty, a Spirit leased pub and John Barras franchise, raised the profits on top of their usual takings at the free Ainsty’s Got Talent event, which took place every Friday from 26 April until 21 June.

Every week eight performers competed in front of a panel of judges but the audience decided who would continue to the next round. On Friday over 300 people attended the final and the pub earned £6,500.

The competition was advertised on Facebook and landlady Wendi Hyde told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser she was initially worried nobody would enter. In the end 58 people applied.

She said: “It has been a real success. As the competition has grown more and more people have come forward and we’ve been getting new sponsors in every week. We’ve had to introduce a filtering system and order new glassware because it’s been so busy.

“The best thing of all is that we’ve raised £14,000 in total, on top of our general takings, from beer and food sales alone. And it’s hardly cost us any money. People go through to the next round on audience participation so that encourages the contestants to bring lots of people.”

Hyde’s friend Caroline Grant, who runs Le Grande Event Management, helped run the contest while Spirit pub company donated the £500 winning prize. Winning group Lucy’s Choir has also earned a slot at the York Apollo Festival on 29 June and 15-year-old singer songwriter Beth McCarthy received a 40in television as runner-up.

“Anyone can do it,” Hyde continued. “We’ve never done anything like this before and we turned £3,000 into £14,000. It’s made us the number one pub in our group.

“Now we’re hoping to run it every year. It’s worth any pub doing it.”