Plans are being drawn up for the biggest UK festival in a generation, to celebrate the end of lockdown – and also to highlight the mental health challenges the pandemic has been responsible for.

The London festival – dubbed The Great Celebration – will help kick-start the economy, as well as being a desperately needed boost for the culture and entertainment sectors, which have been so badly damaged by the lockdown.

London mayoral candidates are all being urged to back the event, planned to run throughout August. It will feature free music performances, theatre shows, street fairs and business networking events, in what could be the biggest party held in the capital for 70 years.

The festival is the brainchild of US-born businessman Brian Rose, the bookies’ second-favourite to be elected London mayor. But he says The Great Celebration should happen whatever the result of the May 6 election, adding: ‘The arts and entertainment world has been devastated by the pandemic. Helping it get back to full strength will also help the economy and, even better, give all of us something to look forward to as lockdown ends, and we are finally able to meet and celebrate with friends again.

‘This is something that should go ahead regardless of mayoral politics, and I am urging all candidates in the London election to throw their weight behind the idea, whatever their disagreements on other issues.’

As well as kick-starting the economy with a celebration, the festival will also have a strong focus on mental health.

Mental health organisations will be invited to play a leading role in the festival, addressing the mental health issues that have afflicted so many people during lockdown.

Rose, 49, who has lived in London for 20 years and is a British citizen, said: ‘Yes, we want to party. But the festival is also a symbolic return of ordinary freedoms which, until last year, we all took for granted. Lockdown has impacted people in many different ways, and we must not forget that as we try to get back to normality.

‘A lot of people are likely to be struggling, and so “Be kind to your mind” is an appropriate theme, while using the festival to amplify mental health messages is a good thing to do.’

The event echoes the Festival of Britain, the national celebration in the summer of 1951 which became a ‘beacon of hope’ for millions of people who flocked to its centrepiece on the South Bank of the Thames.

The 1951 festival is credited with helping reshape British arts, crafts, designs and sports for a generation and, on its 70th anniversary, it is hoped a modern equivalent can have a similar impact, bigger even than the 2012 Olympics and more inclusive for Londoners.

London’s celebrations would be subsidised by the Mayor’s office and supported by a relaxation of red tape around licensing and other logistical barriers. But the aim would be to make it profitable for London as a whole, via sponsorship and increased spending in the city.

The UK economy desperately needs the return of culture and entertainment.

In 2019, before Covid struck, music tourism contributed £4.7billion of spending. Theatres, meanwhile, generated £1.2billion in VAT alone.