£500,000 (about $680,000) and counting: a music festival keeps paying its neighbours back

Big festivals usually leave a place with memories and mud. Manchester's Parklife is leaving money: its Community Fund, which reinvests income from the Heaton Park concerts, has now passed £500,000 (about $680,000) in total, supporting 344 community groups and projects. In Bury alone the fund will pass £250,000 (about $340,000), with £27,000 (about $37,000) allocated to the Prestwich area this year — backing the small, beloved fixtures of local life, from Prestwich Carnival and Clough Day to Prestwich Pride and the Arts Festival. It is a simple loop, working as intended: the neighbourhood hosts the party, and the party funds the neighbourhood.

SDG 11 · Sustainable cities and communities — Mechanism: funding & finance