Frequently asked Questions



Producers and promoters frequently have many questions about

the substance, nature and purposes music festival statistics and the concepts related to the economic impact of music festivals and special events.

Typically, the economic impact of music festivals and special events and the music festival statistics upon which they are based are used as a public relations tool to inform local business, government and the general public about how much their community festivals benefit the entire local economy over and above the community festival itself.



Question: What is the economic impact of music festivals?



Answer: The economic impact of music festivals is the total amount of dollars brought into a local economy as a result of the occurrence of community festivals in a particular location.



Question: What are festival impacts?



Answer: Festival impacts may take many forms, but the primary most tangible impacts are the obvious economic benefits, including direct spending by visitors to the location to attend community festivals, the indirect spending or “ripple effect” those direct spending dollars create in the local economy as well as other economic benefits such as the number of jobs and amount of wages generated by the market festival economic impact and the local and state taxes generated by the market festival economic impact.



Question: How does impact evaluations determine festival impacts?



Answer: Impact evaluations combine data from a variety of types music festival statistics, including surveys, event operational data (e.g. ticket sales, production costs), local tourism statistics (e.g. average visitor spending), other music festival statistics and econometric modeling data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Department of Commerce.



Question: Do studies of festivals and special events include market surveys for festivals and special events?



Answer: Market surveys for festivals and events are typically a critical component of studies of festivals and special events. Market surveys for festivals and events combined with data from ticket sales and other operation data often provide some of the most critical data such as the proportions of customers who are from the local area compared to out-of-town visitors as well as important information on visitor like what type of lodging they utilized and how many nights they stay in town for the event.



Question: What is the impact of festivals on tourism?



Answer: The most basic impact of festivals on tourism has is attracting people from out-of-town to the locality to attend the event.

Moreover, out-of-town visitors typically spend significantly more in the local city or town than they do at the event, since they have to pay outside of the festival for food and beverage, lodging and many other items, including local retail shopping.



Question: Do statistics on the economic impact of festivals and special events really prove useful in the end.

Answer: ABSOLUTELY! Statistics on the economic impact of festivals and special events have helped many festivals achieve the local recognition and cooperation from business, government and civic.



