MAKING SPECIAL EVENTS SPECIAL

Tanya Lyon (Griffith University)


ABSTRACT

Recent attention given to the tourism, marketing and economic impact potential of festivals has seen them become popular initiatives throughout Australia. For example, Brisbane experienced six major arts festivals, one major community festival and 22 smaller community festivals between August and October 1998. This paper looks at how market segmentation theories might approach this seemingly saturated geographic segment. It also looks at the motivations of festival-goers as a segmentation variable. The paper determines that each of these festivals has well-defined product segment but asks whether the proximity in timing between them is a cause for concern.

INTRODUCTION

In June 1998, Barry Kosky, artistic director for the critically-acclaimed 1996 Adelaide Festival, complained to a conference of arts marketers that Australia's major arts festivals were becoming "photocopies" of each other.

"Kosky said there were too many festivals that "are not specific enough." Only Adelaide and Perth had artistically worthwhile programs, whereas the others tended to repeat each other. "At least 50 per cent of festivals have to be Australian work, even if it's awful" (Holgate, 1998:17).

Is Kosky right? Certainly, a scan of the 1998 Brisbane Festival and 1998 Melbourne Festival programs reveal duplication of international acts. The costs associated with bringing international acts to Australia are so great that it is common for major arts festivals to share the burden by touring the act on the festival circuit. In these instances, locally-sourced acts not only provide authentically "Australian" cultural expressions but they also differentiate one city's festival offerings from another's. In effect, Kosky's call for Australian content is also a call for greater product differentiation.

But while marketing professionals are sympathetic to the question of product differentiation, an analysis of market segmentation combined with greater understanding of the festival-goer's motivations raises the question: "product differentiation for whom?"

Barry Kosky's privileged position as a leading artistic director offers him a macro-perspective not afforded to those festival-goers attending an average 1.4 festivals a year (ABS 1997). For them, any "photocopied" duplication in festival content probably goes unnoticed - provided, that is, market segments remain distinct. For example, although the Adelaide and Perth festivals are acknowledged market leaders in the major arts festival category, "me-too" follower festivals in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne attract significant audiences because their geographic segmentation does not place them in direct competition for audiences. But what can we expect when crowding occurs in one segmentation variable? The city of Brisbane is facing this very question.

In August 1998, the Brisbane City Council announced to the arts community that its new Brisbane River Festival would be held in September-October 1998. This was to fall hot on the heels of State Government-initiated and supported Brisbane International Film Festival, Out of the Box Festival, Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Writers Festival, and Multimedia Arts Asia-Pacific (MAAP) Festival not to mention popular special events such as the Royal Agricultural Show and Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers.

The new Brisbane River Festival faced competition from many other entertainment activities. In its first weekend it competed for audiences in the South-East Queensland region with the Channel Seven-initiated Festival of the Rivers (a decentralised community-based festival that was held in various locations in the outlying areas of Brisbane). It also competed against two major sporting grand finals for audiences. In its second weekend, the River Festival coincided with the independently-organised Livid Festival and a federal election. Excluding the above festivals, a further 22 smaller, local festivals are listed in the Brisbane Tourism Events Calendar for August- October 1998, including the Gold Coast Indy, an international sporting event.

Adding to this situation, in September 1998 the Labor State Government announced it was restoring the Brisbane Biennial International Festival of Music (axed by the previous Coalition Government), although renamed as the Queensland Biennial of Fine Music to reflect the addition of Mackay and Townsville as festival venues. It will be held in alternate years to the Brisbane Festival - first held by the State Government in 1996 following the demise of the more community-oriented Warana Festival.

Lastly, the Woodford Folk Festival (held just outside Brisbane during the Christmas-New Year break), draws a significant audience from Brisbane. This places it in direct competition with other festivals held in the Brisbane region and so is also considered in this analysis.

Six arts festivals and one large community festival (total of seven) in under three months held in the Brisbane and surrounding Moreton region with a combined population of just 2.073m (ABS, 1997d). Plus another two major arts festivals - the Woodford Folk Festival and Queensland Biennial of Music - looming in the near future. How can such a small population sustain so many festivals, especially when only a proportion of that population are festival-goers? How can festivals seek to be "special" when such a ready supply of product may lead to a commodification of the festival-going experience? Or, are market segments so distinct that competition for market share is minimised? If so, does the proximity of timing between them affect competition for share of voice?

In attempt to answer these questions, this paper looks at how market segmentation theories and an understanding of consumer motivations might interpret the competitive intensity now facing major Brisbane-based festivals.

We will see that it is in crowded markets, where the boundaries between segments begin to blur, that Kosky's complaint of "photocopied" content, or more accurately the issue of product differentiation, becomes a critical issue in making special events, special.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FESTIVAL MARKET

Festivals seem to emerge in two primary ways:

1.From a local community/special interest group: These events tend to be smaller and more focused on regional culture and/or specific artforms. These can be:

-inward-looking: the primary audience is the local population/niche market (i.e. chamber music aficionados).
-outward-looking: seeking to attract visitors from other places to share the source of celebration.

2.From a government authority wishing to achieve social (getting a message across), political and economic objectives. These tend to be larger in scale and outward-looking (Bonnin 1993).

This paper concentrates on outward-looking festivals because their objective of attracting visitors into a region tends to make them more marketing-driven.

Size:
According to the Festivals of Australia Directory (1996) there are 1, 300 registered festivals occurring within Australia of varying size, scope and focus. And the number is rising. Of these, approximately 227 festivals are held in Queensland with 75 taking place in the greater Brisbane environment.

Only a proportion of the above 1,300 registered festivals could be considered "arts festivals." In fact, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on cultural trends, "festivals devoted solely or partly to cultural activities now total about 300 a year in Australia" (1994:52). However, as festival-goers may not exclusively choose to attend arts festivals it is important to assess the range of the choice facing them in terms of alternative festival products.

Festival-goers:
Nearly 3 million Australians (21.9% of the population) aged 18 years and over accounted for 4.1 million attendances at arts and cultural festivals from November 1995 to September 1996 (ABS, 1997a).

Most audience statistics reveal that the typical festival-goer tends to be female (23.0%), under 35 years of age, single, educated to a tertiary level, and a professional or para-professional worker (ABS, 1997a; Hall, 1992; Formica & Uysal, 1998; Arts Victoria, 1997; QEC, 1997). The Adelaide Festival attracts a slightly older audience with nearly one-half of all respondents aged 30-49 years (Market Equity, 1996).

Although festival-goers tend to be single, many attend as  a couple or with friends or family members (Arts Victoria, 1997; Formica & Uysal, 1998). This has implications for the way tickets might be packaged for group attendance.

Significantly, festival-goers usually attend more than one festival in a year - 1.4 festivals per year according to ABS data (1997a). Formica & Uysal's (1988) study of Spoleto festival visitors also found half the respondents had attended one other festival during the previous year.

A study of festival-goers by arts activities also revealed they are generally "above average attenders of all arts activities but particularly in performing arts activities such as dance, light opera..." (Arts Victoria, 1997:1). Similarly, Andreasen & Belk discovered "heavy attenders at one live performing art tend to be heavy attenders at another performing arts" (1980:112).

Visitors to arts and cultural festivals also tend to have a high repeat patronage rate. Formica & Uysal's (1998) survey at the Spoleto festival found 58.6% were repeat visitors. Similarly, the 1996 Adelaide Festival audience survey reveals a repeat visitor rate of 53.6% and the 52.6% for 1996/97 Woodford Folk Festival (Market Equity, 1996; QEC, 1997).

Interestingly, although the 1996/97 Woodford Folk Festival survey analyses lifestyle membership, none of the audience surveys reviewed for this paper captured participation rates at other festivals, or across artforms, sports or other competing leisure activities. Discovering what festival-goers do when they are not going to festivals would no doubt help refine market segmentation and also offer significant cross-marketing opportunities.

Attendance Patterns:
Well over half of attendances (2.7 million or 65.7%) were to multi-arts festivals. The next most attended were popular music festivals (632,000 or 15.4%), followed by film/video festivals at 6.2% (ABS, 1997a).

Completely free events were the most popular festival event (1.7 million), usually consumed as street parades and concerts. Where festivals programmed mostly paid events, paid attendances ranged from 70%-87% of visitor attendances. However, "the distribution between paid and free events is largely a function of the nature of the festival" (ABS, 1997a:4).

In Queensland, there were 293,000 attendances across four major festival events between November 1995 and September 1996 (ABS, 1997a). Attendance figures can be somewhat unreliable as the same person may attend several events - paid or otherwise.

Consistent with national figures, the greatest attendance was for free events (between 75%-80%) except for the heavily ticketed Brisbane Biennial (39.5%) and the Woodford Folk Festival (39.8%). It must be remembered that free events still generate significant economic impacts in transport, food and hospitality, car parking, merchandise etc.

Importance of local audiences:
Nationally, of the 2.7 million festival visitors, 320,000 (7.8%) were from interstate compared to 92% from local areas{1}. The more recent 1996 Brisbane Festival attracted an estimated attendances of 329,078 with paid attendance of 73, 478. Of those, 88% were from metropolitan Brisbane (QPAT, 1996). It is clear from these figures that the Brisbane Festival relies heavily on the geographic segment of Brisbane for its primary audience.

Although attracting a significant interstate audience, the 1996/97 Woodford Folk Festival attracted approximately 30% from Brisbane and 25% from its local area of the Sunshine Coast. These figures show the Woodford Festival also has a heavy reliance on Brisbane-based audiences, putting it in direct competition with other Brisbane-based festivals for the festival-goer's dollar (QEC, 1997).

Festival Tourists:
Major arts festivals place great importance on visitors attracted to a region to attend their event. This is partly because their success is evaluated by governments on the basis of economic impact to the region, particularly those of tourism dollars spent in the region specifically because of a festival. Indeed, "Most tourism literature pertaining to festivals assesses their economic impact" (Getz & Frisby, 1988:23).

Of interstate visitors, 39.1% (125,000) stated their main purpose for travelling was to attend a festival. The average expenditure of these festival specific travellers was $436 per person resulting in a total expenditure of $54 million. The most popular destination of travellers specifically seeking festivals was New South Wales at 39,000 (ABS, 1997a).

Of 27,000 interstate residents who travelled to Queensland in the same period, 11,000 did so specifically to attend a festival. General interstate travellers spent an average $550 totalling $15 million, while festival-specific travellers spent an average of $468 during a stay lasting a mean of 9 days and median of 8, resulting in total expenditure of $5 million dollars.

Given the high involvement of interstate consumers travelling specifically to attend festivals, it is not surprising that they "were more likely to attend paid events (57.6% of attendances) than all attendances (45.8%)" (ABS 1997a:6). The average number of days spent interstate for these visitors was eight (median of five).

Additionally, Bureau of Tourism Research (BTR) (1994) surveys of international visitors have identified 7% of international visitors attending festivals in 1993, 5%. Although, BTR does not distinguish between arts festivals and other types of festivals the international visitor figures are consistent with audience surveys of individual festivals.

For example, the 1996 Brisbane Festival attracted 2% of attendances from Interstate or New Zealand and 10% from Regional Queensland (QPAT, 1996). In contrast, the 1996/97 Woodford Folk Festival attracted 32% of its visitors from interstate, 1% from overseas, and approximately 20% from other parts of Queensland (QEC, 1997). The high visitor rates from interstate and intrastate is most likely due to Woodford's unique positioning as a five-day camping folk festival which enables it to offer a new dimension to the traditional festival experience.

Internationally-acclaimed arts festivals such as the 1996 Adelaide Festival attract a much greater proportion of international visitors (13% in 1996). Furthermore, "International festival visitors spent an average $138.54 with tickets and $117.12 without tickets. For international other visitors, average daily expenditure was $142.47 with tickets and $126.42 without tickets" (Market Equity, 1996).
It is easy to speculate that given the above expenditure figures from intrastate, interstate and international tourists and the resulting economic impacts - $13 million for the Adelaide Festival, $12 million for the 1993 Sydney Mardi Gras (QEC, 1997) and $12.5 million for the 1996 Brisbane Festival (QPAT, 1996) -help to make festivals popular public initiatives with governments.

Indeed, the ABS acknowledges: "Festivals are becoming increasingly important to the economies of regional Australia" (ABS 1991:1). Academics are also observing a similar focus on the economic success of festivals: "Due to the positive image and economic benefits that these events generate, an extraordinary increase in the number of community and rural festivals has been reported by several authors (Janiskee, 1994; Long and Perdue, 1990)" (Formica & Uysal, 1998:16).

Clearly, some festivals are not always born of a spontaneous desire to celebrate culture but for other, more "rational" purposes. Indeed, we will see later that the stated "purpose" of a festival is often closely related to the market segment that is targeted.

Lastly, while the above data on interstate and international audiences seems fairly consistent, the exceptions of the Woodford Folk Festival (with its high interstate and intrastate numbers) and the Adelaide Festival (with higher international figures and an older audience) demonstrate that different festivals do attract different audiences. The following exploration of segmentation theories gives some insight on this.

SEGMENTING THE FESTIVAL MARKET

As we have seen, the expenditure associated with festivals - particularly expenditure by tourists - has made festivals attractive sources of income for cities and regions. Festivals also play a key role in positioning a destination as a tourist attraction.

However, we have also seen that even major festivals such as the Brisbane Festival and Woodford Festival rely heavily on local audiences for attendance. In the August-October 1998 the population residing around Brisbane has had surplus choice of festival offerings. When festivals are such an everyday experience, there is a danger that the festivals experience ceases to be "special" and merely becomes an entertainment commodity.

"The strategy to prevent this drift to commodity status is segmentation" (Kotler, FitzRoy & Shaw 1980:137). Indeed, market segmentation is a useful concept to critically assess the level of competition in Brisbane between arts festivals.

According to Porter, four segmentation variables can be used to segment an industry (1985, quoted in Pitts, Fielding & Miller 1994). Further segmentation variables based on Kotler, FitzRoy & Shaw (1980) have been applied beneath these categories to provide further partitioning variables.

1.Product segments
a)Preference segmentation based on product attributes such as:
-artform categories: dance, comedy, film, street theatre, music, writing, Indigenous, visual arts, digital media and writers festivals.
    -size: fringe, community, mainstream
    -festival structure: structured (with individually ticketed components) versus unstructured (ticket on entry provides all events).

2.Customer segments
a)Demographic segmentation by age, sex, family size, income, occupation, education, family life, etc. Examples: Early childhood festivals like Out of the Box; youth festivals; ethnic festivals.
b)Psychographic segmentation based on personality variables, lifestyle, variables: Example: Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.
c)Behaviourial segmentation based on how the consumer behaves towards the product, the benefits sought and usage rates (repeat purchasers, season tickets). Benefits sought could also encompass consumer motivations to attend.
3.Channel segments (distribution methods)
a)Methods of distribution: For instance the Loud Festival and MAAP (Multimedia Arts Asia-Pacific) Festival were both delivered to audiences via the internet. Decentralised festivals are distributed simultaneously in different locations (i.e. Festival of the Rivers, the Queensland Biennial of Music, Loud Festival, Olympic Arts Festivals). Roving festivals have also been proposed as a way of servicing Queensland's remote and rural communities.

b)Venues: outdoor festivals, indoor festivals, heritage sites, street festivals, camping festivals. Site novelty can play a significant part in attracting audiences. Examples: Opera in the Outback; arts festivals in vineyards; the 1998 Olympic Arts Festival A Sea Change delivered its Sculpture By The Sea component simultaneously at four beach locations around the country.

4.Geographic segments
a)National festivals: Loud Festival, Olympic Arts Festivals
b)State festivals: Queensland Biennial of Fine Music (Brisbane, Mackay & Townsville)
c)    City festivals: the Adelaide Festival, Perth Festival, Brisbane Festival
e)Regional/Community festivals: Waltzing Matilda festival at Winton, Fiesta at West End - a suburb of Brisbane.

Many of these segments can become the core organising theme for a festival product. For example, the psychographically-segmented Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras, demographically-segmented ethnic festivals like the Panyiri Greek Festival, and so on. Furthermore, each of these segments can be partitioned further into increasingly specialised products and markets. For example, music festivals could be further partitioned into folk, classical, blues, grunge, chorale and so on.

However, just as different festivals target different market segments, consumers are motivated differently to attend. The following section explores consumer decision-making and motivations with regard to festivals.CONSUMER DECISION-MAKING AND MOTIVATIONS TO ATTEND

In order to adequately assess the choices facing the Brisbane population, it is appropriate to look at consumer decision-making and motivations to attend festivals. As Pitts, Fielding & Miller point out "an industry segment is a combination of product variety (or varieties) and a group of consumers who purchase it" (1994:16).

Holbrook & Hirschman have observed that the consumption arts and entertainment products is primarily motivated by the search for "fun, amusement, fantasy, arousal, sensory stimulation and enjoyment" (1982:135). This results in "...the tendency for leisure, entertainment, and arts products to prompt high levels of interest and involvement among their target markets" (1982:134).

Indeed, if traditional consumer decision-making models were applied to festivals they might be categorised as high involvement, transformational (sensory gratification, social approval, intellectual mastery) products (Rossiter & Percy, 1997). Their product attributes are hedonistic, emotional and experiential rather than functional and the high levels of involvement in decision-making may relate to the high repeat patronage rates festivals experience.

While Holbrook & Hirschman object to traditional consumer behaviour research which typically regards the consumer as a "logical thinker who solves problems to make purchasing decisions" (1982:132), it could be argued that festivals do resolve the problem of how to spend free leisure time.

Yet, free leisure time is an increasingly scarce commodity and there are many alternative leisure activities which can solve the same problem. When consuming experiential products, such as festivals, the allocation of time, becomes critical. "Entertainment-, arts-, and leisure-related offerings... often depend more on the allocation of time than money." (Holbrook & Hirschman, 1982:137). This issue of the allocation of time may account for the large proportion of single, under 35 years, childless attendees at arts festivals. Yet, social trends indicate the professional workers who make up the bulk of arts festival visitors and the families that are targeted by community festivals are increasingly time poor.

Furthermore, the decision to allocate time to a specific festival is largely driven by the motivations to attend. In other words, what benefits does the consumer believe the festival will provide and how does the consumer assess one festival's benefits as being different from another.

Surprisingly, in some cases motivations to attend have little to do with the actual festival program or content. "Literature on motivations to attend local festivals has consistently reported Family Togetherness, Socialization, Excitement, Relaxation, Escape and Nostalgia as the most critical factors in visiting a festival"(Formica & Uysal, 1998:22). Instead, it seems the emphasis is on differentiating the festival experience from other entertainment choices which fulfil the same motivations. For example, when evaluating an activity which may fulfil a Family Togetherness motivation, a consumer has a choice between theme parks, cinemas or festival events. Free festival events are especially competitive in these circumstances and families often form a large proportion of audiences found at festival street parades and free concerts.

On the other hand, product differentiation and festival content does matter for visitors to arts and cultural festivals. Formica & Uysal found arts festival attendees are very focused on festival content, such as "listening to music in historical sites; I like shows, ballets, theatre of best quality; see the entertainment; enjoy the atmosphere" (1998:22). They also found that festival tourists are more focused on entertainment activities and authentic cultural experiences, rather than Socialization motivations.

Indeed, "The overall findings reveal that the motivations that encourage visitors to attend an international cultural-historical event, such as Spoleto Festival, are different from the motivations that entice people to attend community and rural festivals" (Formica & Uysal 1998:22). In other words, arts festival visitors seek different product benefits and different experiences than visitors at other, more general festivals.

Bearing in mind the customer segment variables discussed previously, it becomes clear that festivals also need to differentiate from each other in terms of which motivation they seek to satisfy: Family Togetherness, Socialization, Excitement, Relaxation, Escape and Nostalgia (Formica & Uysal, 1998). These motivations are related to the lifestyle and lifecycle of the festival-goer. Yet, only the 1996/97 Woodford Folk Festival survey has attempted to gather lifestyle/lifecycle information about their visitors (QEC, 1996).

SEGMENTING THE BRISBANE MARKET

To work effectively, a market segment should not be "taken" or "owned" by an existing event and the market segment must have a "relatively unsatisfied interest or motivation that the event can satisfy" (Hall, 1992:135). Kosky's comments indicate that he feels major arts festivals are "taken" or "owned" by the Adelaide and Perth Festivals. While this may be true from an international perspective, as we have seen, other city arts festivals are able to compete by targeting a geographically-segmented market.

Our scan of the three-month period from August-October 1998 seems to indicate that the level of competition for a share of the festival-going public in Brisbane has intensified. The festivals targeted in this paper are but seven of 22 other festivals taking place in the same time frame, and a small portion of the 75 or more festivals on offer in the Brisbane environs every year.

Seven of the nine selected for further analyses are of particular interest because of their proximity in timing to each other and their status as major arts festivals. A further two - the reinstated Queensland Biennial of Fine Music and the Woodford Folk Festival - have been added to the segment analyses because a) they are major arts festivals on the Brisbane calendar; b) they compete for audiences within the same geographic segment, but not within the narrow same time frame.

A survey of the aims for each festival provides some insight into the market segments targeted and the kinds of product benefits on offer:

Brisbane International Film Festival (30 July - 9 August 1998)
Aim: "To challenge Brisbane's film-going public with an innovative selection of films; to give members of the Queensland film industry a chance to enjoy cultural exchange with international guests; to establish a more creative environment for young Queensland film-students, film-goers and film-makers; to play a role in the State Government's commitment to developing a film industry in Queensland" (Bonnin, 1993:10).

Out of The Box Festival (28 August - 6 September 1998):
Aim: "To inspire the creative potential of 3-8 year olds; to provide a focus for Queensland artists, educators and companies in recognising the special needs of this age-group and developing meaningful works for them" (Bonnin, 1993:9).

Brisbane Festival (28 August - 20 September 1998):
Aim: No stated mission could be found, however, a foreword to the program states the Brisbane Festival "will offer affordable and accessible arts experiences for diverse audiences" (QPAT, 1998).

Brisbane Writers Festival (3 September - 9 September 1998):
Aim: "To focus on Australian writers, Queensland writers, new talent and a whole range of writing activities; to create a relaxed environment in which writers and audiences can come together and mingle during free day and evening events celebrating the nations literary culture" (Bonnin, 1993:10).

Multimedia Arts Asia-Pacific (MAAP) Festival (September 1998):
Aim: "To focus and promote technology driven creative cultural content in the region [Asia-Pacific]" (MAAP Program, 1998).

Brisbane River Festival (25 September - 4 October 1998):
Aim: "To rediscover the delights of our river, and to take a close look at how we should best manage its future" (BCC, 1998).

Livid Festival (3 October 1998):
Aim: "To celebrate contemporary alternative youth culture; to bring together a who's who of local, interstate and international musicians; to promote live music on an independent basis; to commission alternative artworks specifically for the festival; to present for Brisbane audiences large scale public artworks, outdoor installation and experimental art, energetic performance art, computer animated video art" (Bonnin, 1993:8).

Queensland Biennial of Fine Music
Aim: (Based on the mission of the former Brisbane Biennial International Festival of Music) "To raise the image of Brisbane and Queensland as an international centre for the performing arts; to help build a spirit of excitement, expectation and appreciation of international level performers; to place Brisbane performing artists on the stage and concert platform in parallel or collaboration with great performers from around the world; to assist a growing community develop a growing appreciation of the arts" (Bonnin, 1993:6).

Woodford Folk Festival (26 December - 1 January every year)
Aim: "To discover the folk arts and cultural base of fine arts through a five day program of great depth and variety; to provide performance opportunities for professional artists; to increase the understanding of people of varying cultural backgrounds living in Australia; to empower people of Aboriginal and Islander descent to mount the biggest Murri festival in Australia; to expand the range of participants to include those who are not like-minded; to fire up the folk movement in Australia" (Bonnin, 1993:8).

Customer segments in this paper are  based on observation for each of the nine festivals discussed above. The segments targeted are closely related to the objectives and purposes of each festival (listed above). The Brisbane River Festival, for example,   which aims to promote water management issues, targets suburban families. The Out of the Box Festival has a primary aim related to education and targets school children and their families. The MAAP Festival, with its aim to promote digital cultural content, targets a youth market who are familiar with electronically-provided entertainment.

Significantly, a segmentation analysis of the major arts festivals shows that, except for the multiarts and community festivals, the highly specialised art content of each festival provides clear and distinct product differentiation which may attract different segments of the same home market for different reasons. For example, although competing in the same geographic segment and same product segment (music), the Livid Festival, with its focus on alternative contemporary music and youth culture, does not pose significant competition with the Queensland Biennial of Fine Music which targets older audiences.

Furthermore, Formica & Uysal (1998) showed visitors to cultural festivals focus more on the specific content and as such would understand that the Brisbane International Film Festival offers a different product and festival experience to the Brisbane Festival - even though both events share target markets.

More worrisome is the proximity of timing between the festivals and how this affects competition for share of voice (rather than share of market). For example, this year the Queensland Performing Arts Trust (QPAT) marketed the Out of the Box, the Brisbane Festival, Brisbane Writers' Festival and Composers' Week (formerly a component of the Brisbane Biennial of Fine Music) as a bundled package as well as marketing each individually to their respective segments. Hall observed this practice as "another indication of the use of specific products to maximise the market attraction of a generic product [by]...holding events within events...in the case of many festivals there is a layering of increasingly specialised markets." (Hall, 1992:144). However, the Out of the Box, Brisbane Writers' Festival and Composers' Week promotions did not receive the same high media profile and attention as the Brisbane Festival. Further, despite its ground-breaking objectives, the specialist MAAP Festival found it difficult to find share of voice against the QPAT juggernaut. The following week the Brisbane River Festival had to overcome a festival-weary public and media to achieve a profile.

The proximity of timing is also a critical issue where customer market segments overlap. For example, despite the partitioning differences between the Livid Festival (focus on alternative music) and the Woodford Folk Festival (focus on folk music), a potential overlap in audiences may exist due similar lifestyles, attitudes and developmental experiences in their audiences. Indeed, audience surveys may reveal an overlap exists among specific age groups attending both Livid and Woodford. Fortunately, these two annual events are separated by three months, diminishing the level of potential competition between them. In contrast, the Brisbane River Festival and its competition the Channel Seven-initiated Festival of Rivers both competed for audiences motivated by Family Togetherness in the one weekend.

CONCLUSION

This paper applied market segmentation theories and an understanding of consumer motivations to the competitive situation existing between major Brisbane-based festivals. It was concerned that competition for market share of the Brisbane audience may have reached a saturation point within the geographic segment of Brisbane.

Brisbane is a relatively small geographic segment with an estimated resident population of 2.073m for the Brisbane and Moreton regions. This figure is made up of Brisbane region 1.489 million, Sunshine Coast region 150,187 and the Gold Coast-Tweed area 326,859 (ABS, 1997d). If we interpret ABS (1997a) findings that 21.9% of the national population are festival-goers as a market penetration rate, it would be reasonable to estimate a potential local audience base of 453,987 for South East Queensland and 326,091 for Brisbane alone.

Of the Brisbane population, a smaller proportion fit the profile of a festival-goer as female, under 35 years of age, single, educated to a tertiary level, and a professional or para-professional workers. According to the Brisbane Social Atlas (ABS, 1993), while the median age is 31.2 years, only 7.8% of Brisbane residents have university qualifications; only 2.8% of the population earn $50,000 or more and 36.6% of those are aged between 35 and 44 years - outside the profile age group; a further 9.5% work as managers and administrators.

Based on these statistics, it would seem, at first glance, that the competition intensity for a share of the festival-going public in Brisbane can not be sustained by the local population. However, two considerations complicate this interpretation:

1.The segmentation analysis shows that the product segmentation between each of the nine festivals is clear and distinct and, with the exception of the multiarts and community festivals, appeals to specialised interests.

2.Lifestyle/lifecycle dimensions are more critical variables in festival attendance. Population statistics offer no information about these variables for Brisbane.

Indeed, Andreasen & Belk (1980) argue that leisure lifestyle membership and dimensions, past attendance/experience, attitudes and childhood socialization influences are more important variables in predicting audiences. "Lifestyle, attitudes, and developmental experiences are both more conceptually useful variables with which to understand consumer behaviour regarding the performing arts, and more empirically predictive than socio-economic variables" (Andreasen & Belk, 1980:119). Also, festivals which align themselves with particular lifestyle attitudes, such as Livid and the Woodford Folk Festival, seem to experience a high level of brand loyalty and repeat patronage (QEC, 1997).

While the segmentation analysis showed a high level of product specialisations amongst the arts festivals, we have also seen that heavy attenders at one festival tend to be heavy attenders at other festivals. Consequently, we could expect a number of these specialised arts festivals to share audiences. But without lifestyle analysis on their audiences it is impossible to accurately determine on which frontiers the each of these arts festivals compete with each other.

We also saw that the allocation of time is a critical issue for festival-goers. When audience statistics become available for the festivals in the August to October 1998 timeframe they may show that the proximity of timing between festivals adversely affected all festivals. Further, the allocation of time and money may have forced some festival-goers to forego a repeat visit to one festival in order to attend another for the first time. A decision that might not have been made had major arts festivals been more evenly spaced. In this case, perhaps the product usage rate of Brisbane festival-goers can be increased beyond 1.4 festivals a year (ABS, 1997) through innovative ticketing and cross-promotional packages.

Lastly, this paper speculated that when festivals become an everyday experience they become an entertainment commodity and therefore must overcome consumer complacency about what they have to offer. Certainly, when so many festivals are made available within such a narrow timeframe and geographic segment the consumer can afford to be more discerning with attendance choice. This will place pressure on festivals organisers to segment heavily on product differentiation, to improve the quality of content on offer, and to be creative in the way they make festivals "special" to different markets through innovative venue choice, ticketing packages, and use of new media.

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FOOTNOTES

{1}1 it is not clear whether intrastate visitors are represented in the "local" or "interstate" figures, although figures from individual festival surveys seem to indicate they have been considered as interstate visitors.