Attendance
Attendance is one the most fundamental measures of an event's impact, but can often be misinterpreted or measured inaccurately. It is critical to measure attendance correctly, as so many other measurements use the overall event attendance numbers. Key issues include differentiating between attendances and unique attendees, the demographic profile of attendees, and the approach to measuring attendance at ticketed and non-ticketed events.
Why measure Attendance Impacts?
- To assess the popularity or reach of the event, perhaps for logistical or PR reasons
- To evaluate performance indicators such as the number of young people attending
- To define the 'event population' so that other measures linked to economic, environmental or social impacts can be aggregated upwards to assess impact across the whole event.
Choosing a level of impact
Attendance impacts have been broken down into three categories based upon the ease with which they can be measured. Further details on this categorisation can be found here.
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Basic Attendance Impacts
These impacts capture the number of total attendances, unique spectators and the numbers in various sub-groups
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Intermediate Attendance Impacts
These impacts profile event spectators and attendees using a range of different demographic categories
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Advanced Attendance Impacts
These impacts consider the effect of an event experience on the likelihood of people attending future events
Case studies
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Great Yorkshire Run
It was estimated that some 400 people attended the mini and junior events linked to the 2008 Great Yorkshire Run - and that these were all parents or guardians of the participants.
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London Freewheel
The majority of participants at the 2008 London Freewheel were male (62%), between 25- 44 years of age (58%), and in full-time employment (73%). 12% were from a black or minority ethnic background.
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Tour of Britain Finale
Spectators at the 2008 Tour of Britain Finale said that going to the race had inspired them to attend sporting or cultural events more than they had done previously.