Minnesota Festival Support

We expected twenty-five artists, 300 youth, and 1,000 adults. We had fifty-eight artists, 150 youth and 380 adults. We had a great response to our call for artists, and the funding helped us hire a variety of talented local visual artist-presenters and musicians. We had volunteers helping with children’s activities who gave numbers of participating youth. We, as a group, estimated attendance based on the number of people on the bus tours, periodic head counts at the festival music area, and the number of festival guides distributed. The borders of the festival are permeable, making exact counts impossible. The grant enabled us to increase and expand our advertising and invest in durable goods for future festivals. The ability to have a formal evaluation yielded information about what methods of advertising are most effective and which aspects of the festival were most enjoyed by attendees. These measures will save thousands of dollars for future festivals and will help us shape future festival events. We were able to increase and diversify our advertising to reach a greater audience. Posters and bookmarks were distributed statewide. The reusable billboard increased local awareness. We targeted art, nature, and music lovers as last year, but with a wider distribution of publicity. Statistically, there were no significant changes from 2011 to 2012 in almost all parameters measured, although we observed an older audience who did not like the walking art tour. There was an increase in the number of people who said they would return to the area who had traveled more than fifty miles. 2: Because this is a new festival, the attendees represent an increase in the number of people who experience the arts. Advertising brought in people from a much broader area than in 2011, but we feel the overall attendance was impacted because of more local events on the same weekend and rain at the beginning of the day.