numbers

[kapeman]

When I was at Fest this year, I took a totally unscientific survey of attendees and I found that the vast majority of those I asked, were returnees. I wonder if the Fest looks to achieve a certain percentage of new business each year, or if they have some way of tracking what percentage
are returnees ( and not just for one or two years) and if they realize their focus needs to be on keeping the returnees returning ( by not making too many changes in what obviously is working!!). And I wonder if JF numbers
are different to other festivals. I suspect they might be.

[chrisjoseph]

I think they want both returnees and new people. Ultimately, that's the only way a fest like this can survive.

[swag]

Looking at the booking (Bon Jovi) and the out-of-town advertising, it's clear the Fest was making a push this year to get new attendees, maybe moreso than in the past.

[mightyradgumbo]

Looking at the booking (Bon Jovi) and the out-of-town advertising, it's clear the Fest was making a push this year to get new attendees, maybe moreso than in the past.

It certainly seemed to work. Given that this was the best attended JF post-Katrina, they got what they planned for. Of course there wasn't the torrential r*#n that we have had in the past couple of years either.

I would imagine, outside of the passes (Over, Brass, Big Chief) I am not sure if there is an accurate way to gauge returnees.

[festbabe]

I remember in past years being stopped to complete a survey (verbally) by pollsters who wandered the fairgrounds each day. I think one of the questions was if I was from out of town or local. I don't recall seeing the pollsters anywhere this year.

[i wanna be in NOLA]

They were there again this year. We were surveyed at the picnic tables near the jazz tent. Come to think of it, I think that's where we were surveyed last year as well.

[peteup]

Yep, we were surveyed twice this year.

[festbabe]

Ok, good. I'm glad they're still collecting info. Info is power.