Adelaide festival season for everyone
Posted by Jason Dunstone on February 23rd, 2007 at 8:21pm
It’s festival time! Flick though the numerous guides, book your tickets and have fun. Figures released by two of the larger events last year – The Fringe and Clipsal 500 – announced massive attendance estimates. The Fringe recorded 900,000 people attending ticketed and free shows. The Clipsal 500 estimated an attendance figure of around 270,000. No wonder Adelaide comes alive at Festival time.
A sizeable chunk of the festival goers are locals. Adelaidians love the festival season. It’s that time of the year when the city comes alive. We welcome visitors and boast about what South Australia has to offer.
Based on a householder survey conducted by Square Holes in early April 2006, 600,000 plus Adelaidians helped celebrate the festival season. In a city of 1 million, this is pretty good, when competing with other priorities and leisure alternatives.
The festivals are not just for the young and funky. From the survey findings, the bulk of event attendees were from family households with younger or older children. Only a very small slice were young singles out to have fun. Half were over 40, including one in four aged 50 plus. While those on higher incomes were the bigger spenders, the festival season isn’t viewed as elitist. We are getting out with our family, friends partners and children.
This is rather consistent across the various events on offer during the festive season. It does appear from the survey that Womadelaide has a lower average age and higher income, while The Clipsal 500 had a slightly lower average income. All in all, however, we believe that the festival season to be inclusive and for everyone. The festive season is not just for young, singles with high disposable incomes, but for everyone – mum, dad and the kids.
Posted in Insight
