The Economic Effects of Cultural Festivals. Pilot research and results - Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv 2015

This project was initiated as an applied scientific attempt at developing a methodology with no investor or financing organisation. Industry Watch Group ltd. and the Bauersachs Foundation bare the entire responsibility for the results of the survey.

What is the purpose?

The purpose of this effort is to create an applied methodology and build capacity of consultants and a broad coalition of partners for the on-going survey of the economic effects of non-commercial services. The current survey develops a methodology measuring the return of investments made.

Who is this methodology relevant to?

The methodology is relevant to a wide array of users, including cultural operators, grant receivers, private and public donors, media and active citizens. The results of the survey of economic effects are useful to art managers in analysing and evaluating past events and planning future ones. The data is also relevant to private and public sector partners and sponsors who support or are willing to support art events or projects. The methodology thus developed and the instruments it comprises are applicable not only to cultural festivals and projects but also to a broader spectrum of events that have no direct economic consequences.

Main survey methods

The methodology was tested on the general economic effects of the Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv festival 2015. We conducted 958 field interviews with 40 volunteers. Three complementary methods for the evaluation of economic benefits and effects were used.

Results

Demographic and social characteristics

Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv 2015 festival was attended by 31 000 persons. The total number of Night/Plovdiv 2015 attendances is around 42 000. Plovdiv residents form the majority of visitors with 79% or 24 500 persons.Of all age-groups, the most visitors were in the 18-25 age group, accounting for 32.4% of all visitors. University graduates form 49.7% of all visitors Nearly 80% of Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv 2015 visitors visited the festival two or more times in recent years.

Cost-benefit analysis

On average festival visitors spent 30 BGN. The total profit was 783 000 BGN. All expenses for the organisation of Night/Plovdiv 2015, including those made by partners and participants, amount to around 195 000 BGN. The cost-benefit analysis shows each lev (BGN) invested in Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv 2015 the profit was 4 BGN.

Total travel expenses amount to 86 000 BGN, 51% of them being a result of visitors from the Sofia region.

Contingent valuation method

Based on the optimistic scenario, constructed through the measurement of preferences declared by Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv visitors, “willingness to pay” was calculated at 589 000 BGN.

The total economic effect includes both market and non-market effects and is between 1 and 1.4 million BGN.

For its 11 years the festival has managed to put on the map national, regional, commercial and non-profit structures which function very differently and are known to the public to varying degrees. Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv’s history, its principles and its sustained efforts through the years, make the festival a suitable laboratory case for interdisciplinary research such as the present one. - The survey results were presented at two special events in Plovdiv and Sofia. The Plovdiv event was hosted by Bauersaches Foundation, as the audience was mainly composed of cultural operators and professionals, longtime participants in the festival Night of Museums and Galleries  - Plovdiv.

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