Images courtesy of: Birmingham Weekender 2015

Birmingham Weekender 2015 Impact Assessment

About

Birmingham Weekender, was a festival of arts activities organised by Birmingham Arts Partnership (BAP). This included outdoor and indoor performances and participatory activities centred across Birmingham city centre. The overall event was a showcase for the arts and cultural offer of the city and was presented by BAP, which consists of fourteen cultural organisations in Birmingham. The event coincided with the opening of the revamped New Street station and celebrations of England hosting the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Type of work

Impact assessment

Date

Friday 25 September to Sunday 27 September 2015

The brief

On behalf of Birmingham Art Partnership (BAP), Earthen Lamp were commissioned to carry out research with visitors across the weekend of activities with a view to understand the impact of Birmingham Weekender. This was done by gathering feedback from visitors and estimating the economic and press impact of the programme of events.

The objectives of the research were:

• To understand the visitor experience of the Birmingham Weekender
• To understand the visitor profile (previous cultural attendance and demographic)
• To gather information to facilitate an assessment of the economic impact of the overall programme
• To test the effectiveness of the marketing methods used

The activity

The primary research carried out for this project focussed on using surveys to collect information from Birmingham Weekender visitors.

In total, 354 completed interviews were conducted over the three days of the festival.

Secondary information was gathered from the organisers of the event relating to overall visitor numbers, volunteer information, organisational income and expenditure, and press impact.