Bringing Audiences to Lower Manhattan | Audience Research & Analysis (ARA): Market Research and Economic Analysis for the arts, cultural tourism, education and government

The annual River To River Festival has attracted visitors to Lower Manhattan every summer since 2002. ARA found that four out of five attendees neither lived nor worked Downtown.

In fact, two-thirds had made a special trip to Lower Manhattan that day primarily to attend the Festival. One-third of the audience lived elsewhere in Manhattan, 43 percent came from Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx or Staten Island, and 24 percent made their home outside of the City.

The Festival encourages greater arts participation. Among the six out of ten who had attended the Festival in a prior year, 92 percent reported being encouraged to attend more live performances in the 12-month period following their Festival attendance. Seventy-four percent had been introduced to a new performer or group.

Visitors spend time and money in Lower Manhattan. Two-thirds dined out or bought a snack in connection with their Festival attendance. One out of eight visited a Downtown museum or attraction.

ARA interviewed 2,323 attendees over 12 events between May 29th and September 5th at such memorable locations as Castle Clinton, South Street Seaport, Rockefeller Park, World Financial Center Winter Garden, and the lawn of Battery Park. In addition to learning the motivational role the Festival played in bringing people Downtown and how Festival attendance impacted arts participation, the study profiled the audience demographically, described their sources of information, and provided information valuable to Festival sponsors.