Reinventing rural places? The extent and impact of festivals as regeneration strategies

Chris Gibson Home Page

A major survey of festivals in rural New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania is being conducted in late 2006. If you organise a festival or special event in non-metropolitan areas of these states, and are interested in participating in the survey, please email Chris Gibson on cgibson@uow.edu.au or Chris Brennan-Horley on chrisbh@uow.edu.au

Results have been analysed from a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Festivals Project, which sought to document the extent and significance of festivals for rural communities and economies.

Rural festivals have proliferated and diversified in recent years from the traditional country show to evermore whacky niches -- the Guyra Lamb and Potato Festival, the Wooli Goanna Pulling Festival, the Thoona Latin American and Wheely Bin Festival and Parkes’ Elvis impersonators festival.

Are such festivals significant for rural communities in contrast to their apparent short-lived nature? The ARC festivals project sought to answer this question.

The largest ever database of rural festivals in Australia was compiled with more than 2,800 participating festivals. And through subsequent postal surveys (with 480 festivals in NSW, Victoria and Tasmania) and collaborative research partnerships for qualitative research with rural festivals in Daylesford (Victoria), Parkes (NSW), Bermagui (NSW) and Inverell (NSW), insights were gleaned on the ability of festivals to catalyse social and community development, to generate regional income and to challenge or sustain rural cultural identities.

Summary of results

• Festivals are diverse. Results from our database demonstrate that cultural festivals are highly diverse. The most common were sporting, community, agricultural and music festivals. These categories alone make up 75% of all cultural festivals in non-metropolitan areas. There was also great diversity within these categories of festival types. ‘Community’ festivals covered everything from Grafton’s historic Jacaranda Festival (named after the town’s signature tree) to Kurrajong’s Scarecrow Festival, Nimbin’s Mardi Grass (a marijuana pro-legalization festival), Ballarat’s Stuffest Youth Festival, Ettalong’s Psychic Festival, Tumut’s Festival of the Falling Leaf, Queanbeyan’s Festival of Ability, Myrtleford’s Tobacco, Hops and Timber Festival, and Benalla’s Wheelie Bin Races and Latin American Festival. Similarly varied were sports festivals, covering everything from fishing to billy carts, cycling, pigeon-racing, hang gliding, dragon boat racing and camp drafting, an Australian sport involving mounted horse-riders demonstrating droving skills by navigating individual cattle through gates and obstacles
• Where is Australia’s festival capital? Ballarat is Australia’s ‘rural capital’ of festivals, with 73 festivals staged in 2006-2007. In NSW, Snowy River, Taree and Wollongong all staged over 50 festivals in a calendar year. In Tasmania, West Tamar was the festival heartland with 20 festivals.
• When measured by head of population, very small places had the distinction of hosting more festivals, relatively speaking: Wakool in the NSW Riverina, with a population of only 4800, hosted 22 festivals in 2006-2007. Other towns in NSW with high numbers of festivals per capita included Narrandera, Tumbarumba, Barraba and Bombala. In Victoria, the tiny Towong and Buloke Shires, with 6000 residents each, had more festivals per capita than anywhere else in that state. In Tasmania, King Island, Central Highlands and Break O’Day topped the per capita festivals list
• Most festivals were small - the average attendance at festivals was 7,020 – but results were variable. Two festivals in Geelong – the Pako Festa and the Geelong Show – both claimed audiences of 100,000 people and the Victorian Seniors Festival, actually held in many locations at different times throughout the state, claimed an attendance of 400,000. By contrast, the tiny Summit to the Sea endurance cycling festival had a mere 15 participants. 138 festivals (29 percent) had audiences of fewer than 1,000 people; two-thirds had fewer than 5,000. Only 11 festivals (just over 2 percent) had audiences of more than 50,000. Festivals surveyed were held for an average duration of 3.3 days and had an average of 67 stalls (including food, clothing and merchandise).
• Most festivals were local in orientation – on average 58 percent of attendees across the festivals surveyed were from the immediate locality; 10.5 percent were from the state capital (Sydney, Melbourne or Hobart); 20.9 percent were from elsewhere in the state (notably double the result for capital cities); 8.3 percent from interstate; and a tiny 1 percent on average were international visitors. In total 91 festivals reported that 90 percent or more of their audiences came from their immediate vicinity.
• Management structure. The vast majority (74%) of festivals were run by non-profit organisations, usually tiny in size. Only 3.3 percent of the festivals surveyed were run by private sector/profit-seeking companies. Reflecting this somewhat, the stated aims of festivals were more often than not linked to the pastimes, passions or pursuits of the individuals on organizing committees, or to socially- or culturally-orientated ends such as building community, rather than as income-generating ventures. Indeed, of all categories of festival aims, ‘to make money’ and ‘to increase regional income’ were the two rarest responses (recorded in only 5 percent of cases, combined). It came as little surprise, then, when festivals on the whole recorded small funding bases, limited turnovers, and frequently only just broke even or made very modest profits.
• Job creation. Although mostly small and modest, festivals are lively cells of economic activity, particularly so in small local economies where their relative impact is greater than in urban areas. Questions relating to employment were quite specifically worded to capture economic benefits – asking for the break-down of full-time versus part-time and fixed term versus year-long work both for organisers themselves, and for other associated staff. Overall, using actual employment results from our survey, and extrapolating this for our full database of 2,856 festivals across the three states, it is estimated that 176,560 full-time and part-time jobs are created directly in the planning and operation of cultural festivals in regional Australia. Breaking the results down, on average 4.1 full-time jobs were directly created in each festival in the planning stage, and 5.1 part-time jobs directly created in the planning stage; 13 full-time jobs and 12.6 part-time jobs were on average created at the time of operation. In other words, across all festivals in the three states included in the study, 99,448 jobs were directly created in planning and running the festival. The most common were event managers/directors/coordinators (25 percent of jobs created), administration and accounting positions (24 percent), ground-keepers, ground staff and facilities managers (12 percent), public relations, promotions and marketing positions (9 percent) and artistic services (including artists, artistic and musical directors – 8.5 percent). Other paid positions created by festivals included retail staff, cleaners, security, catering, judging, stage crew, announcers, and tourism and community development planners. In addition to these figures, organizers claimed that on average another 27 directly related jobs (over 77,000 in total) were created by their festivals in the wider community (i.e. not employed by the festival itself). Actual conditions and length of employment generated by festivals obviously vary enormously and need to be understood. But in overall terms, festivals are deceptively effective creators of local jobs.
• Volunteerism. Festival organizers surveyed estimated that 19.2 days were spent by the average volunteer assisting their festival during its planning phase, and 5.7 days on average assisting during the running of the event at time of operation. Across the 480 surveys this constituted the equivalent of over 8,600 days (or 23 years’ worth of labour) when adding up the work done by the average volunteer across all festivals in that given calendar year. The magnitude of this can then be multiplied by the factor of number of volunteers actually contributing at each festival. Assuming the average festival has 5 volunteer workers, then 355,570 days’ worth of labour (equivalent to 975 years) was provided in total across all 2856 festivals in the three states. Using a more ambitious estimate of 20 volunteers, the figure was more like 1,422,280 days’ worth of labour (or 3,900 years). Cultural festivals are thus deeply embedded in local economies through volunteerism. Along with the fact that they are predominantly organised by non-profit organisations, they are in many respects a classic example of the ‘community economy’ at work.

ARC DISCOVERY GRANT 2005-2007

Chief Investigators:

Dr. Chris Gibson, University of Wollongong (cgibson@uow.edu.au)

Prof. John Connell, University of Sydney (jconnell@mail.usyd.edu.au)

A/Prof. Gordon Waitt University of Wollongong (gwaitt@uow.edu.au)

Prof. Jim Walmsley University of New England (dwalmsle@pobox.une.edu.au)

Research assistant/project management:

Chris Brennan-Horley, University of Wollongong (chrisbh@uow.edu.au)

Andrew Gorman-Murray, University of Wollongong (andrewgm@uow.edu.au)

Tegan Freeburn

Elyse Staynes

Anna Stewart

Technical Assistance

Heidi Brown

Emma McIntyre

Background:

Against a backdrop of rural decline, many places have sought to reinvigorate community and stimulate tourism, through staging festivals. As yet, no research has comprehensively documented this emerging trend. This project aims to examine festivals in rural Australia through a profile of festivals across three states (NSW, Victoria and Tasmania), and in-depth case study research on the economic and cultural significance of festivals. It will contribute to three debates: the significance of festivals for rural restructuring, the rise of post-productivism, and changing rural identities. Outputs include publications, theses, research training, community workshops and an online database of festivals.

National and Community Benefit:

This research addresses the important problem of rural decline in Australia. This project will make available new knowledge on innovation in rural places. Benefits will accrue to specific communities from insights on the possibilities and limitations of regeneration through festivals. Tourism promoters and regional development policy makers will be able to make use of the online database of rural festivals. National benefits include greater understanding of the significance of festivals. Research will empower rural communities and advance theory on rural restructuring, post-productivism and the reciprocal relationship between place and identities. In these ways, this project seeks to strengthen the social and economic fabric of rural Australia.

A database and survey of festivals in South-Eastern Australia

Component A of this project was the compilation of a database and conduct of a survey of festivals in rural (defined as non-metropolitan) areas in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. It created a profile of the number, location, size and diversity of rural festivals.

“People working in local communities know that festivals and special events are incredibly important”, says the project director, Dr Chris Gibson from the University of Wollongong, “but often government and bureaucrats are not so aware. We want to map the extent and significance of rural festivals to show decision-makers just how many rural festivals are staged every year, how important they are, and how they contribute to communities economically, socially and culturally”.

All kinds of festivals are encouraged to participate, from the smallest community event to large-scale flagship festivals: “we are interested in the full spectrum of events, no matter how large or small”, says Dr Gibson.

An online resource will be produced from the results of the survey, to be made publicly accessible.

For further information, email Chris (cgibson@uow.edu.au).

In-depth case study: The Daylesford ChillOut festival
Daylesford’s ChillOut is one case study in a project that is examining both the economic and social impacts of rural festivals. Led by Associate Professor Gordon Waitt, a team of researchers was in the Daylesford /Hepburn Springs area during March to explore such impacts of ChillOut.

Economic impact
Festivals are often positioned as a mechanism for the revitalisation of rural economies. However, little is known about how much revenue remains within the local economy. One aim of this project was to estimate how much of visitor expenditure remained within the local economy, by collecting surveys from businesses and from visitors to the towns during the festival weekend. Results of the economic impact study will be used to make give further insight into the economic outcomes of hosting festivals in regional locations.

Social impact
We are interested in examining how festivals impact on living in Daylesford - particularly Chillout. Our investigation will take the form of open ended responses contained in the ChillOut Fillout and a business survey as well as through vox populi interviews on the streets of Daylesford during ChillOut. In depth interviews will be conducted over the course of the fieldwork period with both visitors and residents in order to gain greater insight into the social impacts of the festival.

Relevant publications by project researchers:
Gibson, C (2007) ‘Music festivals: transformations in non-metropolitan places, and in creative work’, Media International Australia incorporating Culture and Policy, 123 (May), 65-81

Gorman-Murray, A, Waitt, G and Gibson, C (2008) ‘A queer country? A case study of the politics of gay/lesbian belonging in an Australian country town’, Australian Geographer, 39, 2, 171-191

Brennan-Horley, C, Connell, J and Gibson, C (2007) ‘The Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: economic development and contested place identities in rural Australia’, Geographical Research, 45, 1, 71-84

Duffy, M, Waitt, G and Gibson, C (2007) “Get into the groove’: the role of sound in creating a sense of belonging in street parades’, Altitude, v8 http://www.altitude21c.com/

Gibson, C and Connell, J (2005) Music and Tourism, Channel View Press, Clevedon ISBN: 1-873150-93-8 (Hbk); 1-873150-92-x (Pbk); 1-873150-94-6 (Elec.)

Gibson, C and Davidson, D (2004) ‘Tamworth, Australia’s ‘country music capital’: place marketing, rural narratives and resident reactions’, Journal of Rural Studies 20, 4, 387-404

Brennan-Horley, C, Gibson C and Connell, J (2003) Parkes Elvis Revival Festival Results of Visitor Survey 2003, Parkes City Council, Parkes

Stewart, A, Brennan-Horley, C and Gibson, C (2006) Parkes Elvis Revival Festival: Visitor Survey Results 2006, Parkes City Council, Parkes

Honours theses:

Tindall, T (2005) Economic Impacts of a Small Scale Youth Sports Event: a Study of the Gromfest Surf Carnival, BSc (hons), University of New South Wales

The majority of special event literature concerns itself with the impacts of large-scale events in sizeable communities. This thesis aimed to determine the economic impact of a small-scale youth surf event in a small rural town, and to discern whether or not there were any relationships between the size of the host community, event size and type, and economic impacts. The third aim of the thesis was to provide a critique of the economic impact assessment methodologies normally employed in special event literature, with the sub aim of examining the reliability of the visitor expenditure and business turnover survey techniques employed in this study.

Gromfest is the most prestigious annual youth surf event in Australia (Rusty Gromfest, 2005), attracting large numbers of visitors each year to the small rural community of Lennox Head on the far north coast of New South Wales. On-the-spot visitor surveys were conducted during three of the four days that the event was held alongside a survey of businesses. In total, 65 businesses responded to the survey, constituting 77.4 percent of all identifiable businesses within the community. 108 visitor surveys were also returned from an estimated 1,260 non-local spectators, representing 420.5 visitors, or 33.2 percent of visitors not identified as time-switchers or casuals. The results of these surveys were then used to calculate estimates of the economic impact of Gromfest on the host community as well as surrounding areas. No indirect impacts were calculated, due to the numerous sources of error inherent in multiplier and cost benefit analyses. The two methodologies employed in this study were then compared and contrasted to ascertain whether they were indeed supportive of each other.

The hypothesis that Gromfest brought substantial economic impacts was accepted, with visitor expenditure estimates of turnover attributable to Gromfest estimating $22,008, $59,479 and $92,292 (lower, middle and upper bounds respectively) and business turnover estimates of $31,432, $66,251 and $109,214. These results were compared with those of previous studies, as were visitor spending patterns and demographics. These comparisons showed that event and host community size do influence the scale of economic impact, as does proximity to other towns and the type of visitor the event attracts. It was found that the larger the event and the smaller the host community, the greater the relative economic impact. Youth events were found to bring different impacts to adult events due mainly to the different demographic profile of the visitors they attract.

A number of flaws were identified in the current techniques used for analysing the economic impacts of special events. These included an over-reliance on visitor surveys and multiplier analyses. In response to these flaws, a business survey was tested and found to be a sound supplementary methodology. The addition of business surveys to economic impact researchers’ repertoire of techniques of is advocated, as is the utilisation of both visitor and business surveys simultaneously to allow for a more in depth analysis and triangulation of results. Business surveys are especially useful in small host communities, where it is possible to survey every business in town and generate an accurate figure of turnover attributable to an event. This thesis concludes by emphasising the need for alternative methods of economic impact assessment. Business surveys based in small host communities should be further tested and perfected before being adapted for use in larger host communities.

Wong, C (2005) The Environmental Impacts of a Festival: exploring the Application of the Ecological Footprint as a Measuring Tool, BEnvSc (hons), University of New South Wales

Festival and events are a segment of the tourism industry undergoing significant growth. Research on the impacts of festivals and events has predominately been conducted from an economic perspective, with environmental issues covered in a very limited sense. However, analysis of the impact of festivals on the environment is important, not just because of their rate of growth, but also because of their potential to contribute to more sustainable forms of economic activity.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the applicability of the ecological footprint as a measuring tool for assessing the environmental impacts of staging a festival. Ecological footprint methods have been previously applied to estimate impacts of national and city scale consumption but never before applied to short-duration events. This methodology was selected because of its ability to measure a diverse set of impacts and demands placed on the environment, while being a method that is easy to execute, understand and convey to non-academic audiences. Splendour in the Grass, a major music festival held annually in Byron Bay, Australia was chosen as a case study.

Three estimates of the ecological footprint of the festival (low, medium and high) were produced using data obtained from surveys of festival participants, local council representatives and existing consumption models. The ecological footprint of a festival was calculated to be 1.12 hectares per capita (or 1.53 global hectares per capita) for the low estimate, 1.43 ha/cap (or 1.75 gha/cap) for the medium estimate and 1.75 ha/cap (or 1.96 gha/cap) for the high estimate.

The aggregate and component-based results were compared to those of previous applications of the ecological footprint. The findings indicated that an average festival attendee demanded less ecological space in an aggregate sense than an average resident in previous studies of ecological footprints. However, when results were compared based on components within the ecological footprint, it was found that an average festival attendee required more energy land to assimilate their substantial transport and energy related carbon dioxide emissions than that of an average resident in previous studies.
Cross-tabulations of variables were also conducted to ascertain relationships that could aid in the prediction of ecological footprints for future festivals. It was found that certain demographic variables (e.g. gender, occupation, industry) were associated with certain consumption patterns (e.g. choice in food, accommodation, transport). In some cases, consumption patterns were associated with other consumption patterns (eg. accommodation and water use, transport and goods purchased).

Finally, this thesis reflected on the utility of the ecological footprint methodology for festival research. Problems existed in adapting the method for applications to festivals and events. However, the ecological footprint has great potential for future use, both as a tool to evaluate different types of festivals and events, with different categories of audience and duration, and as a vehicle to educate and raise awareness on the ecological impacts of human activities such as festivals.