Adelaide Festival 2018 generated $76.1m for South Australia
Following earlier figures that the 2018 edition of the Adelaide Festival set a new box office record of $4,565,692, a new economic assessment report commissioned by the festival showed that the 2018 event injected $76.1 million into South Australia.
This marked a 9% increase on 2017, the first year that its joint artistic directors Neil Armfield AO and Rachley Healy took over.
Adelaide Festival 2018 created new expenditure of $18.1 million for the state, up 19% from last year.
This was due to an astounding draw of 19,825 visitors from interstate or overseas specifically for the event.
It marked a 44% increase on 2017 with visitor bed nights increasing to 138,021 – a 50% increase on 2017’s figures.
Net impact (or newly created incomes) on the Gross State Product is estimated at $21 million, including the creation of the equivalent of 220 full-time jobs (up 20%).
“It’s absolutely thrilling to read these results and for the Adelaide Festival’s economic value to be broadly understood, alongside its social, cultural and reputational value,” said Rachel Healy.
“It is clear that the Adelaide Festival is the catalyst for bringing thousands of visitors to the state and we have great pride in the significant return on investment it delivers to South Australia.
“As the artistic custodians of Australia’s pre-eminent international arts festival, we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure Adelaide Festival remains the destination event for arts lovers across the country.”
SA premier Steven Marshall added, “The Adelaide Festival is an iconic Australian arts festival, and I’m delighted that the 2018 event has been a successful one – I certainly look forward to seeing it prosper once again in March 2019.”
The 2018 festival’s box office draw was the biggest in its 58-year history.
It featured 383 performances across 48 ticketed events, with over 170 artists from 53 countries.
It had four world premieres and 14 Australian premieres, as well as 13 events exclusive to Adelaide.
24 free events included talks and visual arts exhibitions.
The economic impact figures were assembled by Barry Burgan on behalf of Economic Research Consultants.