MOUNT Gambier City Council has flagged continuing its support of the city’s successful Fringe Festival, which attracted thousands of people into heart of the city during.
The council – which held its formal budget meeting last night to hear community submissions – has earmarked $50,000 to next year’s festival along with a $10,000 in-kind contribution.
The proposed budget allocation follows an economic snapshot estimating the popular community event generated a $2.2m economic windfall.
Running for the third year now, the Street Lift Off Party attracted double the amount of attendees compared to last year’s event.
Participation also increased with ticketed events growing to eight with most shows sold out or close to.
A noted rise in festival sponsorship, along with participation with the Fringe Up campaign, was also recognised by council.
In a report to council, community well-being general manager Barbara Cernovskis foreshadowed council would now work alongside the Fringe Festival committee to ensure next year’s event was bigger and better.
This would include ensuring there was a correct balance between volunteers, council resourcing and paid workers in a bid to develop a sustainable structure.
Building a process and human resource framework will also enable the event to operate efficiently with aims to prompt artists and audiences to support events.
Maintaining and growing sponsorship funding and other income expenses will also take priority to ensure the festival has room to grow.
Statistics presented to elected members showed 65pc of attendees were locals with 16pc overnight interstate visitors.
According to the detailed report, most groups consisted of two or three people with only 3pc being more than five.
A total of 25pc of attendees were between the ages of 25-34 years with 75pc of attendees reported to have not stayed overnight.
The majority of festival-goers attended specific events gaining a majority of the information from Facebook as well as word of mouth.
For those who did stay overnight, many spent the weekend at a friend or family members house with 33pc using local accommodation.
Local accommodation was reported as the leading average expenditure with a $115 figure average.
Food and drink was second followed by shopping and other spending.
Event ticket spending averaged $40 with transport at $39.
