THE owners of Bournemouth 7s Festival have personally spent more than £500,000 keeping the business afloat amid the “catastrophic” Covid crisis. The festival’s managing director made the revelation as he lobbied MPs to help the events industry, which is said to be worth more than £70billion a year and 700,000 jobs. Craig Mathie, who manages the festival owned by Roger and Fleur Woodall, has submitted evidence to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee. He said the impact of cancelling festivals this year had been “nothing short of catastrophic for the entire sector”. Bournemouth 7s was founded in 2008 and welcomes 400 sports teams and 30,000 festival goers over the spring bank holiday. It employs a full-time team of seven people and around 1,200 at the time of the event.