AROUND 12,500 people attended Fringe in Mount Gambier events during the festival’s feature weekend in March, up on a total 8000 people who attended events during last year’s month-long festival.
An evaluation report received by Mount Gambier City Council showed 75pc of attendees were local, a further 10pc were from South Australia and 13pc visited from interstate.
Of those visiting from intrastate and interstate, 80pc of survey respondents said their visit to Mount Gambier was event specific, while 20pc said the festival was incidental to their visit.
This year’s program featured 24 performing arts events, six visual art/film events and two literary events held at different venues.
The report showed the economic value of Fringe in Mount Gambier, with 94pc of survey respondents stating they went out for a meal before or after an event – up 25pc on last year’s survey results.
Visitors spent an average of $127 on accommodation, $46 on transport and $54 on food and drink during the festival.
Timing the festival to coincide with the conclusion of the Adelaide Fringe proved to be of value and captured artists as they made their way to Melbourne.
Council contributed $20,000 cash and $5000 in kind towards this year’s festival.
Country Arts SA contributed $10,000 while SATC sponsored the event to the value of $10,000 towards marketing activities.
Due to a conservative budget, additional sponsorship of $5250 was secured from the community and proved “invaluable” when securing artists.
Council has allocated $20,000 cash and $5000 in kind in its 2018/19 draft budget.
If the draft budget is endorsed, council will continue to support the growth of Fringe in Mount Gambier, however the festival will remain a community and stakeholder led initiative.
