CEPEL

So Fest (The social and territorial impact of festivals)

SOFEST research!

While the artistic and cultural impact of festivals is becoming well known, their social value and territorial footprint have not yet been the subject of a large-scale analysis.In a context of cultural policy reform with changes in territorial scale (regions, metropolitan areas, and new boundaries for public inter-municipal cooperation establishments, etc.), this study aims to shed light on the various contributions of festivals to local areas.At a time when the Ministry of Culture is reflecting on the contribution of festivals to the artistic and cultural field, but also on their capacity to participate in regional development, the study aims to shed light on the social and regional impact of festivals in a concrete manner. The study had five components, the current status of which is as follows (the four published reports are freely available on the France Festivals website).

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  • festival audiences: 26,000 questionnaires processed, a notebook published
  • Socio-economic indicators for festivals: 184 organizations, a published report
  • volunteers, 3,500 questionnaires processed, a notebook published
  • partnerships of general interest for festivals, qualitative interviews and questionnaire processing, workbook in progress
  • social communication of festivals, 200 events analyzed, report currently being drafted

In addition to these aspects, the SOFEST team wanted to estimate the economic, social, and artistic losses associated with event cancellations in 2020. This resulted in a special report, published on the France Festivals website – Cancelled festivals: estimating the economic and social loss At the end of 2021, the SOFEST team will publish all the results (quantitative and qualitative) in a book to be published by Presses de Science Po.

From SOFEST! to the Festival Observation Device (DOF)

In parallel with the execution of its program, the SOFEST team was involved in the implementation of the États Généraux des Festivals (EGF), promoted by the Ministry of Culture. At the end of 2020, it was tasked with extending its analysis to all festivals in cultural sectors not previously included in its scope: visual arts, cinema, literature, among other sub-sectors of the performing arts such as storytelling and street arts. The aim is to establish a long-term observation of the festival scene, based on a sample to be constructed. Starting in February, the team hopes to send a tailored questionnaire to as many festivals as possible, based on the initial version of the questionnaire used in the study on socio-economic indicators. The questionnaire now includes more questions on sustainable development and the current situation of events in the context of the health crisis.
Each festival participating in the study completes an online questionnaire via a personalized link (takes about 20 minutes to complete). In return, they are provided with a comparative table based on a set of indicators allowing them to compare themselves with other festivals in their sector (e.g., classical music, dance, urban arts, literary events, etc.) and with the overall sample of all festivals that responded to the survey.
The study will be launched in the last week of January.
The data will be processed and analyzed in March, published in April, and presented in early May during the second phase of the EGF at the Printemps de Bourges festival.
See you in May!Study directors: Emmanuel Négrier and Aurélien Djakouane, CEPEL, CNRS – University of Montpellier Coordination: France Festivals
Partnership: Agence culturelle Grand Est – Occitanie en Scène – Le collectif des festivals breton – Fédération De concert ! – Fédération des festivals de chansons francophones – La Sacem – Crédit Coopératif – Ministry of Culture

More information: SoFest