Growing the field A comparative study of Outdoor Arts programming in Australian festivals and special events

Adam Direen June 2015

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Contents

Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 2

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Methodology and Scope ................................................................................................................. 3

Outdoor Arts and Festivals: What are the distinctions? ................................................................ 5

The Melbourne Environment .............................................................................................................. 7

SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival ................................................................................................ 7

White Night ...................................................................................................................................... 10

Moomba ........................................................................................................................................... 12

Wider Australia ................................................................................................................................... 14

WOMADelaide ................................................................................................................................ 14

Perth International Arts Festival ................................................................................................... 15

Common Threads and Differences.................................................................................................. 18

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 23

Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 24

Cover Image: (Clockwise) Flinders Station White Night 2013, WOMADelaide main stage 2014, The Giants by Royal Du Lux Perth International Arts Festival 2015, Pixel Mountain by Stalker Theatre at SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival 2015

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Abstract

This report provides a comparative analysis of how Outdoor Arts are programmed within five

major Australian festivals and events. In its appraisal it also considers audience responses,

community reception and online engagement of these festivals and events as well as arts,

festival and event industry academic literature. The aim is to identify possible areas of

growth within Outdoor Arts programming.

For the purposes of the report, “Outdoor Arts” is a broad term used to encapsulate the

performance or situation of multidisciplinary arts practice in an outdoor environment.

The report examines Moomba Festival, the Perth International Arts Festival, White Night

Melbourne, SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival and WOMADelaide within its scope.

Key findings were:

In all of the case studies, Outdoor Arts programming represented an important or

central part of the festival and events content.

Each of the festivals and events mentioned have similarities in their cultural product

however see themselves with different identities.

Outdoor Arts and festivals are inextricably linked. Outdoor arts are seen to make

conceptually “elite” art forms accessible to a wider audience. They can create a hub

of activity within a defined space and time, even if the larger festival context is

interspersed with different events and locations.

Outdoor Arts create an opportunity for the production of something novel and tests

artist’s abilities to innovate around different environments. This produces unique arts

experiences that can have a noticeable impact on their audience’s imaginations.

The accessibility of Outdoor Arts means that it can also be programmed in a variety

of locations, but its scope must be appropriate for the place in order to create an

optimal user experience. This is vital in order to foster community engagement which

is paramount for event longevity.

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Introduction

“Australian’s don’t do Outdoor Arts very well” was the provocation offered by an anonymous

source within the Melbourne Recital Centre. At the end of a chat over coffee, it was

declared as a personal, off the cuff statement. Yet it is also a comment that opens up an

interesting field of inquiry. The landscape of Australian arts programming is increasingly

becoming intertwined with a festival and event based ecology, blurring the lines between

disciplines and traditional audience demographics. Aside from large popular music festivals,

nearly every state in Australia has its own international arts festival, all supported with public

funding due to the recognised prestige they accrue and the cultural capacity they build within

their communities. Within this burgeoning festival market programmers seek to diversify

their content in order to provide a more varied experience for their audiences. One such

method of diversification has been through programming Outdoor Arts. These typically have

the benefits of being free, large public spectacles that help to capture the festive atmosphere

and encourage audience consumption within their given context. The deconstruction of

traditional venues for arts practice, whether they are of a visual or performative nature is also

seen to be a method of rejuvenating spaces which lack public relevance. This programming

style is not necessarily a new concept either. International events have featured Outdoor

Arts practices for many years too.

The aim of this research report is to identify possible areas for growth within Outdoor Arts

programming. It will seek to gain some insight into what audiences perceive of their

experiences and why by examining:

The 2015 artistic program from five Australian festival and event’s.

Audience responses, community reception and online engagement of these festivals

and events

Arts, festival and event industry academic literature

Methodology and Scope

For its comparison the report will primarily examine five major festivals and events across

the country. They are SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival, White Night, Perth International

Arts Festival, Moomba Festival and WOMADelaide. These have been chosen due to their

similarities in location, audience demographic, and program content. The research will draw

upon industry reports, website material, social media statistics as well as academic studies

to elucidate its findings.

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Part 1 will examine what Outdoor Arts encompasses as well as how it is tied to a festival and

event based ecology. Part 2 will examine the program content and audience attendance of

the Melbourne based events, SummerSalt, White Night and Moomba. Part 3 will scrutinize

WOMADelaide and the Perth International Arts Festival for examples on how Outdoor Arts

are produced interstate. Part 4 will highlight the common threads and distinctions from the

research. The conclusion will identify opportunities for growth within the sector.

It is important to remember that a study such as this opens up a wide array of possible

considerations and research approaches. Due to the lack of available official data for some

of these events as well as the constraints of time and length, this study is intended not as a

definitive solution to the given investigation but as a guide to further areas of exploration and

consideration. It is hoped that the report may be useful to the Melbourne Recital Centre and

other relevant stakeholders who are investing in Outdoor Arts programming in the future.

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Outdoor Arts and Festivals: What are the distinctions?

The concept of Outdoor Arts is not necessarily a new one. As far back as 1902, Warren H

Manning used the term in reference to a positive outcome resulting from the popular “World

Fair” or exposition concept that many cities across the world had adopted. He included in

his definition of Outdoor Arts “land scape design, architecture, sculpture, the closely allied

industries of floriculture and horticulture, and so forth… (1902, p. 172).” What Manning

describes here is what has come to be known as Public Art. This is itself a term which

sometimes defies categorisation. Robert Russell however explains it as “artworks outside

museum and gallery walls” including “the various forms that public art can take, including

murals (e.g., wall paintings and mosaics), three dimensional works (e.g., statuary and

earthworks), and performance pieces (e.g., Happenings) (2004, p. 19).”

As an extension of this idea, Outdoor Arts effectively takes these and other art forms that

would normally be located in a building “to the streets.” The motivations for doing so are

varied. An arts organisation such as a theatre company might want to perform in an outdoor

venue due to aims associated with greater accessibility to new audiences. A dance group

may recognise there is an important artistic resonance that an unconventional space has

with their new piece. Or an orchestra may want to achieve a specific social or cultural

outcome by performing a work within a non-traditional setting. While many of these

disciplines have been performed in an outdoor environment at varying points throughout

history, “Outdoor Arts” specifically refers to the combination of these cultural enterprises in a

unified time and space. For the purposes of this report then, “Outdoor Arts” is a broad term

used to encapsulate the performance or situation of multidisciplinary arts practice in an

outdoor environment. It includes forms of public art as well as arts practices such as dance,

opera, theatre, live music, design and other forms of street performance.

Outdoor Arts practice has found its way into a burgeoning festival and large scale event

market, ostensibly through the prolific spread of international arts and music festivals during

the latter part of the twentieth century. There is a perception that many traditional arts

festivals cater for the cultural elite or highly developed tastes through the programming of

opera, chamber music, modern jazz and Avant-Garde films (Waterman, 1998, p. 60). The

use of Outdoor Arts within festival environments helps to break down some of these

distinctions. A study of Outdoor Art festivals in the United States recognised that the

diversity offered by a festival context “provides attenders an opportunity to experience new

styles of art, potentially ones they would not seek out independently and, thus, festivals were

viewed by respondents as a gateway to new kinds of arts attendance (Rosenstein, 2010, p.

26).” Arts practices have played an important role within festivals though out human history,

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the details of which are outside the scope of this report. Stanley Waterman however,

believes that although “arts festivals today have only tenuous links with the ancient seasonal

festivals that have religious or cult origins (1998, p. 58)”, society continues to draw upon the

same vocabulary. “In other words, we transform the everyday space of the familiar and the

mundane to one that is otherworldly and spiritually uplifting, even if the jollity and

improvement are serious stuff (Waterman, 1998, p. 58).”

The desires for producing a festival or cultural event in contemporary society are numerous.

Stephen Alomes notes throughout the twentieth century cultural festivals and special events

rose and fell in significance in Australia. He observes that “in the contemporary world

tradition is something which grows readily over surprisingly short periods of time (1985, p.

5).” Many traditional holidays and celebrations prominent during the 19th century were

supplanted in the middle of the twentieth century due to changing influences and cultural

values. Festivals may be truly community inspired or a thematically designed to celebrate a

person, place or thing. Waterman states that they may also be aesthetically created to grant

recognition to a particular artist, discipline, period or genre (1998, p. 59). Increasingly

however, the anticipated outcomes are becoming more instrumental in nature. Aalst and

Melik believe that “decision-makers feel they need to mount a festival to be able to compete

with other cities – preferably an international festival that attracts media attention and a wide

audience (2011, pp. 195-196).” Festivals are seen to promote a consumption of culture

which is widely recognised as a source of prosperity. Their injection into local economies

operates “at the interface of art and culture, the media, tourism and recreation (Van Melik,

2011, p. 196).” It is within this cauldron of influences that Outdoor Arts practice finds itself

existing, inextricably linked to the festival market.

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The Melbourne Environment

SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival

The SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival (SummerSalt) was a multidisciplinary arts event

which ran for the first time over the course of four weeks from the 23rd of January to the 21st

of February 2015. It featured a variety of artistic programming from live music, dance,

theatre and opera to processional performances, installations and street art in a mix of free

and ticketed events. It was created with the specific goal to bring Melbourne’s Southbank

precinct to life through outdoor art during the peak summer tourist season. SummerSalt was

produced by the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) in collaboration with ten other core

partners from Melbourne’s leading arts organisations. Many of these are based within the

Southbank arts precinct.

The festival evolved from a previous MRC event called The Garden Party in 2013 which was

a four weekend music festival in a vacant car parking lot behind the Recital Centre

(Melbourne Recital Centre, 2013). 6399 people attended including 1000 at an Australia Day

party, 60% of which had never attended a recital centre event before. It featured over 140

local and international musicians from a variety of genres and the gravel car park was

transformed with fake grass, deck chairs, food vendors and a stage. The idea of expanding

the event to use other underutilised spaces in Southbank was received well by neighbours

within the precinct. A festival concept was developed a consortium of arts precinct partners

and a funding pitch sent to the state government of Victoria. The festival organisers were

promised a government grant of $1,000,000 (SummerSalt Festival Information, 2015). The

extra budget requirements were sought from sponsorship and ticket sales. The government

funding was approved in June 2014 and the festival was slated for a January 2015 opening.

This left the organisers with a very short turn around window.

Various parts of the festival took place across 26 different locations in and around the

Southbank area. A central festival hub was located on Dodds Street next to the Victorian

College of the Arts and the Melbourne Theatre Company. The festival hub featured three

stages as well as spaces for more intimate performances. It also contained food and drink

vendors, its own lighting design, and an ever changing layout depending on what was being

performed each week. Other performances utilised spaces close by such as various areas

of the VCA, the MRC carpark, and the ACCA forecourt. Further afield, multiple events were

hosted at outdoor areas such as Testing Grounds, the Hamer Hall Terrace, Southgate,

promenade and the Arts Centre forecourt. It is important to note that due to the four week

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time period of the event, only a small number of the locations were ever in use at the one

time. This resulted in large gaps in programming within certain areas. The exception to this

was the festival hub which usually contained some sort of artistic program throughout its

opening hours.

The primary ticketed events were usually programmed on the festival hub main stage.

These included the musical performances of Women of Soul, cabaret shows by Mitchell

Butel and Tina C, dance performances by the Melbourne Ballet Company, as well as circus

and physical theatre which featured Scotch & Soda and Pixel Mountain. Testing Grounds, a

City of Melbourne venue located on a vacant lot behind the Australian Ballet Centre, also

hosted three live music events featuring a variety of bands and styles which played well into

the evening. There were a number of children’s performance groups which typically

performed in the morning hours on the street stage of the festival hub. These attracted

family groups (60% with children) who filled the site during the mornings and early

afternoons (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 5). Many of the smaller free performances toured a

variety of sites around the festival, including the hub where they either featured on the street

stage or as roving artists. These included the dance pieces Escape to the Infinite,

Circulations and Gentle is the Power. Also prominent were the family works Minute Exhibit,

A moment Caravan, Cocoloco and Something Fishy.

The festival featured a number of inflatable art works namely the Creature Feature giant

inflatable’s each with its own individual name and story. “Lady Leviathan” was a giant squid

like creature that protruded from the upper windows of Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre, and

was noticeable from the CBD as well as many points on the Yarra River. “Puck the Baby

Dino” was originally placed on the MRC roof but moved in later weeks to the festival hub.

“Bumblebee” was lodged deliberately into part of the MRC entrance overhang and “Shine”

featured prominently on top of the hub bar. Another important inflatable artwork, Exxpolis by

the Architects of Air, operated from the ACCA forecourt for the first week of the festival

attracting large crowds. It was a piece that was touring the country and also featured

prominently at the MONA FOMA and WOMADelaide festivals. Essentially a large structure

which can be walked through, the shell of the work filters light to provide a dazzling

experience to those inside.

Festival attendances were counted at 162,923 of which at least 54,500 were unique visitors

over its 14 days of operation (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 5). Due to the fact that people may

have attended multiple events in one day, the unique visitor number gives a clearer baseline

to draw conclusions from. These people were mostly from greater Melbourne (85%) and the

largest group (40%) were aged between 35 and 49 years of age. 14% of these people

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stated that their visit to a SummerSalt event was the first time they had ventured into the arts

precinct this year (EY Sweeney, 2015).

A simple 1-5 scale (1 being very poor and 5 being excellent) measured different aspects of

the festival. 85% of the participants rated their overall festival experience as “good” or

“excellent” with only 2% describing it as poor. The variety and quality of content was

something received well by audiences with 77% liking the diversity and 87% believing that

the quality of the content was either “good” or “excellent”. However the “general buzz or

atmosphere surrounding the festival” had a 14% disapproval rate with a mean score 3.68.

This combined with a mean score of 3.46 for “the choice of food or drinks available”

highlights that there is room for improvement in providing patrons a complete festival

experience (EY Sweeney, 2015). Another section asked audience members to grade on a

1-5 scale whether they agreed or disagreed with certain statements about the festival. In a

positive sign for Outdoor Arts, 93% of people agreed with the statement “I like it that

SummerSalt takes arts events into non-traditional outdoor spaces” and again with “the

SummerSalt Festival is a great way of making arts and culture accessible to a wider

audience.” Importantly for arts programmers, 77% of people agreed with the statement “the

SummerSalt Festival increases my likelihood of attending arts and cultural events at this

time of year (EY Sweeney, 2015).”

Festival stakeholders also provided a collection of qualitative feedback with the general

feeling being that although the motivations behind the event were supported, the execution

needed improvement. Stakeholders highlighted

…the sense of emptiness, and a lack of activation at some of the events and activities.

As a result they felt it lacked in atmosphere…there was also concern that the event

was disjointed and pieced together, rather than successfully unifying the space and the

venues (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 8).

The online presence of SummerSalt was represented through the dedicated website and

social media platforms Facebook, twitter and Instagram, connected with the hashtag

#saltyarts. As of June 2015 the Facebook page has 1,937 likes, the Twitter account has 369

followers and the Instagram profile has 483 followers. Interestingly, 20% of local businesses

rated the marketing activities of SummerSalt in the press, radio and online as being “not

too/not successful at all (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 39).”

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White Night

White Night is an annual large scale multi-disciplinary arts event which takes place within the

Melbourne CBD for one night in February. It runs from 7pm to 7am and attracts nearly

500,000 people to the city. The event features visual art, sound and light shows,

installations, theatre, music, film, exhibitions, design and other types of performance in a mix

of free and ticketed events. Artists and performers are sourced both from Australia and

internationally. Part of the initial success of White Night was the ability of organisers to

negotiate with major cultural institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Australian

Centre for Moving Image, Federation Square and the Arts Centre. For the first time ever

these organisations simultaneously operated throughout the evening.

Inspired by the international network of Nuit Blanche (the translation from French literally

meaning “White Night”) events, White Night Melbourne is funded and organised by the

Victorian Major Events Company (VMEC). They are a non for profit entity established in

1991, which works closely with and is funded by the state government of Victoria. Since its

conception in Paris in 2002, Nuit Blanche has gained notoriety internationally, with events

now being held within 20 major cities across the world. Each White Night is sculpted to the

unique characteristics of each location however maintains the core goal of making “art and

culture accessible to large audiences within public spaces (White Night Melbourne, 2015).”

The night is executed by Right Angle Events, a large scale event management company

based in Melbourne whose previous credits include the production of the Rugby World Cup.

The funding for White Night was secured for three years by former premier Ted Baillieu from

2013 – 2015. VMEC and Right Angle Events are currently in negotiations for a new round of

funding from the state government, despite “an $80 million boost (Puvanenthiran, 2015)” to

VMEC’s overall funding in the 2015 Victorian state budget. The event budget has never

been disclosed but is expected to be in the millions.

Before the 2013 White Night opened, it was criticised for a lack of direction or purpose.

Commentators such as former Queensland Art Gallery Director Doug Hall, described the

event as a “cultural one night stand with bragging rights” and a “schoolies for culture

(Cuthbertson, 2012).” Despite some of the negative publicity 300,000 people attended the

first event which pushed the organisers and cities infrastructure to the limit. Since then the

event has been modified to allow for growth although 2015 crowd estimates were down on

the 2014 figure of 550,000 people. The Age arts editor, Debbie Cuthbertson believed that

the “their efforts have paid off, with the crush of previous years reduced and the flow of foot

traffic vastly improved (2015).”

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The 2015 event utilised the distinction of 9 precincts running in a southerly direction from the

northern point of the CBD, right through to the NGV and Alexandra Gardens in the South.

The names for each of the precincts include titles such as “Rivers of Gold”, “The Big Chill,”

“Wonderland,” “4 Elements” and “The Engine.” Each one is home to a number of different

events; although how their names relate back to the content or location is not always clear.

The arts events featured in White Night are many and varied. There was a large music stage

placed on the Engineers lawn of the Alexandra Gardens which featured a variety of acts

including hip artist Remi, synth rock band Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, “international

mini orchestra” the Tek Tek ensemble as well as soul rock artist Stella Angelico. Sita’s

Garden personally directed by event director Andrew Walsh, presented a host of Bollywood

dancers on a large barge progressing down the river surrounded by illuminated floating Lilly

pads. The Crucible was a large metal dragon placed on Birrarung Marr which literally

spouted fire out of its mouth. Large projections onto buildings have been a feature of White

Night for all three events and one of the highlights of 2015 was 4 Elements. Here, the entire

front façade of the Royal Exhibition Building was illuminated with projections of four dancing

bodies representing earth, wind, fire and water. Other large scale projections were also

placed around the city. An outdoor cinema was set up in the Bourke Street Mall and large

illuminated human stick figures, Key Frames, were planted in the NGV fountains. Further up

Melbourne’s lane ways were smaller scale live art events (White Night Melbourne, 2015).

The White Night website provides direct entry points to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,

Youtube and Google Plus. Since its inception the Facebook page has had 61,937 likes as

of May 2015. 8, 427 people have checked in at the event and there have been 159 reviews

with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. The Twitter page has 12,800 followers and has

had 897 tweets made. The Instagram account has 4,905 followers and has made 162 posts.

The online reviews tell an interesting tale across the two year period this function has been

active. It would appear that people had very strong opinions of the event with 72 people

posting 5 stars and 33 people posting 1 star. The rest had between 15 & 20 (White Night

Melbourne, 2015). As opposed to Debbie Cuthbertson, strong criticisms (as with other

years) mostly focused on the sheer size of the crowds and the related difficulty of

movement/queues. Residents in apartment buildings were left upset when noise levels from

music events carried on till 7am. Some people felt lost and noted that crowds had to travel

large distances to see certain installations, although this may be due to a crowd

management decision rather than an artistic one. There were also criticisms directed

towards the functionality of the White Night phone app leaving some patrons confused. This

being said, most reviews were largely positive. Interestingly many of the people who had

positive feedback also said they attended later on in the evening. Words like spectacular,

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excellent, jaw-dropping, fantastic and great were used to describe peoples overall event

experience. Despite this Cuthbertson believed that “the atmosphere was lacking, and for me

there were fewer powerful, compelling and even audacious acts (2015)” when compared to

previous years.

Moomba

Established in 1955 by the City of Melbourne, Moomba is the annual river carnival which

takes place from the 6 – 9th of March. It features an array of free entertainment including

concerts, parades, sporting competitions, a birdman contest, children’s performers, rides and

a fireworks display. While not specifically an arts event, Moomba is recognised as one of

Australia’s most iconic outdoor community festivals (City of Melbourne, 2015). It occurs at a

similar time of year and geographical location to both White Night and SummerSalt.

Throughout the festival’s four days in 2015 an estimated 1.25 million people attended (Hunt,

2015). The event is organised by walkerabercrombie, a large scale event management firm

based in Northcote, Victoria. The festival has a total budget of $2.9 million (Fuss, 2015).

The general program for Moomba 2015 was laid out into five distinct precincts. These were

the Main Arena, the Skate Park, the River, the Kids Zone and The Green. Some of these

were based on the northern side of the river and some on the southern side. Access

between banks of the river was either through the Princes Bridge or the Swan St Bridge at

opposite ends of the site. Each precinct also contains several smaller locations in which

content was programmed. The Main Stage was located in the very centre of the festival

grounds and typically presented some of the more well-known musical items. The Green

and its “Push Stage” saw the performances of Melbourne’s up and coming artists. The Kids

Zone contained an array of family and children’s entertainment while the River featured a

collection of water sports and film screenings. The Skate Park was specifically used for

skate related sports and entertainment. While in reality, some of the precincts weren’t

physically contained to one area their designation was particularly effective in the

presentation of the online program. Headline bands on the main stage occupying the

primary 8:30pm time slot were Jebediah on Saturday night, You am I on Sunday night and

the Hoodoo Gurus on Monday night. Each act was followed by fireworks at 9:30pm. While

these events occurred there were also bands playing at 8:00pm and 9:00pm on the Push

Stage in the Green Zone. One of the highlights of the event is the Moomba Parade, a

processional event which travels down St Kilda Road to the Yarra river bank. In 2015

80,000 people attended (Partland, 2015). The parade features floats designed by the

community one of which will hold the Moomba King and Queen which for 2015 were Shane

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Warne and Pallavi Sharda (Partland, 2015). These temporary monarchs act as festival

ambassadors helping to communicate aspects of the event to the community.

Data surrounding festival attendances is organised into the types of groups people attended

with. 77% of attendees were from Melbourne metropolitan areas, 15% from regional

Victoria, 2% from interstate and 4% were from overseas (Hunt, 2015). In 2015 55% of

people attended with immediate family members, followed by a partner/spouse and then with

friends (Hunt, 2015). The average age of attendance was 34.9 years of age and the

average amount of children per group was 0.9. Average group sizes were 4.3 people. The

above data highlights the family orientated makeup of visitors. Attendees are adults with at

least one child in tow. Backing this conclusion up, the most popular reason for attending

was highlighted as “I wanted to take my family (Hunt, 2015).” The most popular day of

Moomba was Sunday the 8th where 515,000 people passed through the festival. Survey

responses to the event were generally good, overall 89% of people gave the festival a

positive rating. Interestingly, a 2006 survey of Moomba’s wider effect within the community

stated that when compared to the Australian Grand Prix “the Moomba festival was seen as

being more negative in terms of the litter generated and the excessive drinking and/or drug

use associated with the event (Fredline, 2006, p. 23).” However it was “seen as better in

terms of the creation of social capital type benefits such as promoting values that are good

and giving residents an opportunity to have fun with their families and friends (Fredline,

2006, p. 24).”

Moomba’s website links directly to Facebook, twitter and Instagram. As of May 2015 the

Facebook page has 22,765 likes, while the Twitter and Instagram accounts have 1854

followers each. Moomba’s twitter page has had 285 posts across three years of operation

and each post receives numerous likes and occasional comments. The Twitter page is also

very active with 1891 tweets being made since its inception. Posts on all platforms featured

eye catching images of the events which noticeably helped in attracting user engagement.

User engagement tended to be tracked through the shares, comments and likes of particular

posts. Many posts on Facebook for instance received likes counted in the hundreds (City of

Melbourne, 2015). There were a number of complaints made to the Facebook page

commenting on the late start to the parade, length of queues, poor use of the large TV

screens and lack of ATM access (City of Melbourne, 2015).

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Wider Australia

WOMADelaide

WOMADelaide is a major outdoor festival which takes place in Adelaide’s Botanic Park from

the 6th – 9th of March. The “World of Music, Art, and Dance” (WOMAD) is a concept created

by musician Peter Gabriel in the United Kingdom in 1982. In 1992 it came to Australia and

has since been based in Adelaide. Over 4 days 95,000 people attended the 2015 event,

witnessing the work of over 400 artists (WOMADelaide, 2015). Like the name suggests,

WOMADelaide features a strong line-up of local and international musicians, visual artists,

dancers, as well as key note speakers dealing with the environment. The event is produced

by the WOMADelaide Foundation and managed by Arts Projects Australia which is based in

Unley in South Australia.

The festival site for WOMADelaide stretches between Frome and Hackney Roads in Botanic

Park and is approximately 600 metres long by 400 metres wide at its largest point. Within

this space there are 7 stages and numerous themed “Zones.” This includes a Kids Zone,

Global Arts and Craft, the Global Display, the Healing Village, Global Food as well as a

hammock zone. The main stage is positioned roughly in the middle of the site. Interspersed

between all these are numerous bars and other vendors. The program was designed as

such that no more than six events were happening at any one time (WOMADelaide, 2015).

The line-up of musical acts was incredibly diverse. There were representatives from many

different countries and styles of music. The headline act could be considered to have been

Sinead O’Conner who on the final Monday night performed to a large crowd on the main

stage (Sutton, 2015). “The planet talks” were a series of public panel discussions made up

of well-known Australian and International identities surrounding the themes of sustainability

and the environment. The Kids Zone included a range of activities including appearances by

author Andy Griffiths, interactive theatre pieces, as well as art workshops designed for

children. The Taste the World program featured an international culinary adventure where

artists from around the world help to cook up their native dishes. Supporting this program

was the Street in the Park – Taste the World Restaurant where chef Jock Zonfrillo designed

a special menu for the festival. Unlike the rest of the Taste the World program, Street in the

Park was provided in a full service setting. Numerous workshops and Q & A sessions were

also a feature of the WOMADelaide program. These included music and dance classes

across different styles as well as conversations with artists and public figures like Peter

Garrett. There were other individual events programmed too. Exxpolis, which also

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appeared at SummerSalt, ran for the length of the festival. The Colour of Time Parade, a

reinvention of India’s Holi festival, invited a large crowd of people to “erupt in a frenzy of

music colour and dance (WOMADelaide, 2015).” Led by the performance group Artonik, this

finished with a crescendo of colour made from the beautiful gulal powder as its various

shades are thrown into the air. There were also makeup and hair artistry from Spain and a

320 kilogram human Kelly doll from France.

WOMADelaide’s website provides entry points for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and

YouTube. Their Facebook page has 20,530 likes as of May 2015. Since its inception,

12,760 people have checked themselves in and the festival has received 464 user reviews,

with an average review of 4.7 out of 5 stars (WOMADelaide, 2015). Their Twitter feed has

6,888 followers and has made 1440 tweets. The Instagram account has 1,753 followers and

has made 149 posts. Of the 465 online Facebook reviews received since the feature

became available, 379 people have rated their experience as 5 stars and 58 gave 4 stars.

Overwhelmingly the feedback is positive in nature. One example of a 2015 review

commented that the festival was “absolutely fabulous. First time attendee but would

definitely go again. Well organised. Wonderful mix of music from all over the world. Loved

the Air Architecture Display. Great food. Well behaved crowds (WOMADelaide, 2015).”

Another said her “heart sings when I hear the worlds music in my ears (WOMADelaide,

2015).” In an interview with the ABC, prominent Adelaide radio personality Myf Warhurst

stated “one of the best laid out festivals I've ever been to… You can just wander around,

you can stay under the trees, you can have a beautiful time, see music that you've never

seen before, and be blown away by music from places you never thought you'd hear

music from (Sutton, 2015).” Criticisms mostly centred on a lack of toilets for patrons and

the unclean state of the ones that were present. This aspect alone was enough for some

people to give lower scoring reviews, with one person stating that there were “not enough

....and filthy with waste flowing out (WOMADelaide, 2015).”

Perth International Arts Festival

Established in 1953, the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) is the longest running

cultural festivals of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. Produced by the University of

Western Australia, in 2015 it ran from the 13th of February – 7th March. The festival

programs events largely within Perth but also includes locations in the Greater Southern

Region of Western Australia attracting an audience over 700,000 people on average. It is a

multi-art form festival featuring theatre, visual art, dance, opera, public works, street art, film

and literature. PIAF reportedly has a total budget of $22.4 million (Taylor, 2015). The

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festival coincides with the Fringe World festival in Perth and includes the Perth Writers

Festival and the Great Southern Festival as umbrella events.

While not specifically an Outdoor Arts festival, the 2015 event featured Royal De lux’s world

famous The Giants as the headline act. Artistic director Jonathon Holloway reportedly spent

$5.4 million on bringing Royal De Lux to Perth in his last year at the helm of the festival

(Taylor, 2015). The Giants has toured internationally for several years now and the visit to

Australia had festival organisers tie a story around ANZAC day into the performance. Over

three days thousands of people lined the streets to witness the journey of the “little girl” and

“the diver” through the streets of Perth. The pair are actually large marionette puppets, six

and eleven metres tall, operated through a complicated system of pulleys and wires by a

large crew. An estimated 1.4 million people witnessed the performance, 829,488 of which

came into the city specifically for the event (Vickery, 2015). The event reportedly generated

$37.6 million in income within Perth (Vickery, 2015). The incredible response to the event

has made Royal De Lux’s visit one of the biggest arts events in the nation’s history.

Other outdoor events were programmed too. The Lotterywest Film Festival screened a

variety of international films outdoors in large open theatres across two locations. There

were however a number of screenings cancelled due to inclement weather (Perth

International Arts Festival, 2015). The Chevron Festival Gardens based in the Western

Australian Museum grounds, provided a central hub for some of the contemporary musical

acts to perform. Essentially a pop up space, the gardens also contained a bar and food

vendors creating a “back yard style feel (University of Western Australia, 2015).” Another

notable performance was by the band London Grammar who attracted thousands of people

to an outdoor concert at the Red Hill auditorium outside of Perth.

The 2015 website creates entry points for a number of social media platforms including

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify. The Facebook page has 38,809 likes

and 821 people have checked in at festival events as of May 2015. It has an average rating

of 4.6 out of 5 five stars from 85 reviews (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015). The

Twitter page has 26,215 followers and has made nearly 5,570 tweets. The Instagram

account has 4,977 followers and 252 posts have been made. Of the 85 online Facebook

reviews posted since the feature became available, 68 people rated their experience with 5

stars and 8 people with 4 stars. Most of these reviews commented on The Giants event.

One 5 star review stated “spent this morning watching the giant diver wake up and walk

Wellington Street. Awesome! What an atmosphere! Thanks for bringing such a beautiful

piece of street theatre to our little city (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015).” Another

visitor, clearly happy with her experience commented “AMAZING, SUPERFANTASTIC,

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AWESOME, GREAT & BREATHTAKING OMG (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015).”

Criticisms of the giants were mainly directed towards issues with audience sight lines and

events not starting on time.

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Common Threads and Differences

While seemingly different in their implementation, the five case studies reveal some

interesting similarities as well as some important distinctions.

Audience relationship with Outdoor Arts

In all of the case studies, Outdoor Arts programming represented an important or central part

of the festival and events content. Events drew large crowds and provided opportunity for

artists to showcase their work. There are a number of reasons why Outdoor Arts

programming may be appealing. Responses across all events highlighted that people were

positively affected by various art forms and that these left a lasting impact. The novelty of

seeing something new and unfamiliar within a festival environment created a sense of

wonder or amazement in audiences at many of the case study festivals. While this effect

can be produced by a variety of art forms, the impact of “spectacle” events cannot be

underestimated. Enormous crowds attended The Giants at PIAF and White Night. These

were both free events which were easily accessible designed to have a definite “wow” factor.

Part 1 of this report referenced the accessibility of Outdoor Arts as key to its success.

Rosenstein highlights that an essential component of this is the aspect of choice. The

outdoor festival environment has many artworks on offer and the audience member is only

bound to a piece as long as they want to be. She notes that “respondents in the volunteer

focus groups said they believe this ability to approach unusual or challenging artwork while

feeling free to control how long they engage with that work is an important reason audiences

appreciate visiting festivals (2010, p. 26).” The deconstruction of the barriers of

establishment is seen to be particularly important for fostering a family friendly environment.

This can be seen in the demographics that attended Moomba, SummerSalt, WOMADelaide

and The Giants at PIAF. Again, Rosenstein states that focus group respondents “believe

that festivals embrace and foster this family-friendly atmosphere (2010, p. 25).”

The impact Outdoor Arts programming has on people is important to the wider arts and

culture industry too. It may provide impetus for new arts attendees to explore a locations

culture further. Van Melik and Van Aalst believe that “people who do not ordinarily seek out

cultural facilities can be introduced to venues they might not otherwise have visited. For

instance, some people might combine going to the festival with visiting a museum (2011, p.

197).” Outdoor Arts also leads to increased interaction amongst artists which has a positive

impact on artistic vitality within the industry. These all have a dollar multiplier effect on local

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economies which represents yet another advocacy argument for Outdoor Arts programming

(Olsen, 2013, p. 482).

Identity and Competition

Each of the festivals and events mentioned have similarities in their cultural product however

see themselves with different identities. SummerSalt has deliberately tied its branding to

that of Outdoor Arts, though many of its contemporaries offer similar experiences. White

Night capitalises on the special event aspect of its creation. It is unmatched in scale but only

available for the short period of twelve hours. A month after SummerSalt finishes Moomba

starts, focusing on the aspects of community, the cities relationship with the river as well as

“themes of pleasure, play and childhood fantasy (Alomes, 1985, p. 16).” At the same as

Moomba, in South Australia WOMADelaide is capitalising on a focused program of music

and global arts and craft. The name itself is intrinsic to its brand “World of Music, Art and

Dance.” Running parallel with all of these events, PIAF in Western Australia is capitalising

on the states newly acquired mining boom wealth to fund an unprecedented variety and

scale of arts activity (Vickery, 2015).

The fact all of these events run co-currently and that they compete with other cultural or

sporting events too, is not to be taken lightly. It demonstrates something about consumer

spending habits within the summer months. Van Aalst and Van Melik note that this isn’t an

unusual phenomenon. Summer coincides with the holidays and it is a useful period to

attract tourists (2011, p. 197). If it is true that people vote with their feet, the programming of

Outdoor Arts at festivals and events has proven to be immensely popular amongst

audiences. However with so much competition within a relatively short space of time, the

ability of new festivals and events to capture fresh arts audiences may become strained.

The capability of event organisers to balance this imperative while working within a highly

competitive environment for resources may affect the artistic merit of their program. For

Cecile Olsen this is already the case in many examples. She states “that arts festivals have

become somewhat disconnected from their original policy domain, with their current high

profile due not so much to their artistic merit, but rather to the relevance they hold for other

policy agendas like tourism and city re-imaging (2013, p. 482).” Importantly then, festivals

and Outdoor Art events must seek to find relevance with a local audience first in order to

have longevity as evidenced by a number of the case studies.

Community Ownership and Engagement

Of the five festivals and events examined PIAF, Moomba, and WOMADelaide have been

running for multiple decades at 62, 60 and 23 years respectively. SummerSalt and White

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Night are only recent additions to the Melbourne cultural landscape. This large gap between

the older and newer institutions doesn’t necessarily mean however that audiences sizes

were larger at the more established events. White Night has attracted hundreds of

thousands of people since its inception in 2013 while WOMADelaide 2015 attracted a record

attendance at only 95,000 people. Moomba runs for the same dates at WOMADelaide

however attracts a vastly higher number people. The difference of course may be due to the

difference in size of the relevant cities.

The longevity of both events may partly be due to the phenomenon which Eric Hobsbawm

labels “invented tradition.” He describes it as “a set of practices, normally governed by

overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate

certain values and norms of behaviours by repetition, which automatically implies continuity

with the past (1983, p. 1).” Hobsbawm believes that festivals and events try to connect with

a suitable historic past in order to create meaning. This is exemplified by events such as the

parade at Moomba and its links to Carnivale, or the international celebration of culture at

WOMADelaide. Invented tradition is solidified by the repeat attendances of patrons for

whom the yearly pilgrimage gradually becomes “a tradition.”

Interestingly, community participation at the events in Melbourne was strong. 77% of people

at Moomba, and 85% of people at SummerSalt were from the Melbourne metropolitan area

and a similar number would be likely for White Night. Interaction with social media may also

provide an insight into how a community engages with an Outdoor Arts event. A study

examining social media use at music festivals showed that “interacting with the brand using

social media had a direct effect on emotional attachment to the festival, and emotional

attachment has a direct effect on word of mouth (Simon Hudson, 2015, p. 74).” Of all the

five festivals and events examined, WOMADelaide had the highest number of user “check

in’s” and reviews. Despite having one of the smaller crowd sizes, WOMADelaide has a

community that is actively engaged and has ownership of its arts event. This has likely been

key to its success over many years.

Spatial Relations of Place and Atmosphere

If community support is seen as a key component of festival and event success, one must

consider the role of its location. The concept of “place” in relation to festivals and events is a

complicated one. While usually ephemeral in nature, festivals create a site of convergence

for a community outside of everyday routines, experiences and meanings. Victor Turner

believes the shared experience has the capacity to create “communitas.” He describes the

concept as a liminal (a state of flux or change) experience or

21

…a ‘moment in and out of time’ and in and out of secular social structure, which

reveals, however fleetingly, some recognition (in symbol if not always in language) of a

generalized social bond that has ceased to be and has simultaneously yet to be

fragmented into a multiplicity of structural ties (2004, p. 80).

In some ways what Turner is referring to could be considered a festivals atmosphere. An in

depth examination of place is outside the scope of this report but the case studies

themselves reveal a number of interesting points. Firstly, it becomes apparent that there is a

delicate balance between over and under crowding. If too many people are within one

space then audiences will become uncomfortable, but if there is not enough people then the

event will feel empty. Each of the case studies had an individual relationship with place.

WOMADelaide’s festival site was a defined section of Botanic Park. This provided a lush

green setting for audiences and artists to come together and have a shared experience

without being overcrowded or distracted by other non-festival activities. Similarly, while

Moomba is held in close proximity to the Melbourne CBD, its setting is next to the Yarra

River and within green parklands. This too, creates a defined environment removed from

the urban metropolis of the city or suburban areas.

It is contrasted with White Night and SummerSalt’s use of place where urban streetscapes

are purposely transformed to become something different with varying degrees of success.

The objective here is that the environment itself becomes part of the art. However achieving

this has proven difficult in both examples. The size and scope of the streetscapes used

create gaps in the festival’s sense of place, where the normality of the urban regime is

allowed to seep through. This effectively means that as patrons flow from one artwork to the

next their experience is interrupted. PIAF on the other hand, deliberately operates in this

manner. Its programming is not necessarily designed to create a continuous ‘vibe’, but

instead transforms specific sites at explicit times for the purposes of the festival. The Giants

is a prime example of this. For a defined period of three days the large marionette puppets

suspended the cities belief and created a shared experience of the characters journey for

hundreds of thousands of spectators. However when The Giants had left, the city went back

to its normal operating activities even while the festival continued with other events and

locations.

In this sense, it isn’t so much that place affects audiences’ reception of the arts but that the

arts affects the reception of place. The study conducted by Van Melik and Van Aalst

revealed that “the festival’s organizers and its visitors are less convinced than the host cities

of the importance of a specific location to a festival. In their view, the destination is the

festival, not the city (2011, p. 205).” This relationship is of course symbiotic to some degree.

22

However while host cities obsess over “place marketing” with festivals, it is interesting to

note that the Outdoor Art they program often feature at the event’s direct competition too.

This can be evidenced with many of the musical acts, children’s performers and Exxpolis in

the 2015 examples performing at multiple festivals within a similar period. These concepts

open up a wide ranging topic for further discussion and analysis.

Administration and Organisation

Many of the criticisms concerning the case studies were not so much directed at the arts

content but at the event organisation. This was noted particularly when patron comfort or

experience was directly affected. One disadvantage to programming Outdoor Arts is that the

infrastructure usually relied upon to deliver an optimal user experience has to be constructed

or forgone. This makes the festivals and events which program Outdoor Arts incredibly

resource heavy. It can put great strain on the organisers to find the right balance between

all the elements mentioned above in order to make audiences feel comfortable. If something

is not executed correctly the longevity of a festival or event may be at risk. A survey of 39

event managers in the United States found that possible the top causes of festival failure

were believed to be inadequate marketing or promotion, a lack of advance or strategic

planning, the weather, a lack of corporate sponsorship, and an overreliance on one source

of money (Getz, 2002, p. 212). If these issues cannot be overcome it might be an indicator

on how appropriate a festival actually is for a place or community. Getz believes that a

festival failure is not necessarily a bad thing for the host environment. He states that “in

cities, for example, the failure of one arts festival might be necessary for others to emerge

and for innovation to occur (2002, p. 218).” With the festival and event market in Australia

ever expanding, it will be interesting to see how this process of death and rebirth effects the

programming of Outdoor Arts into the future.

23

Conclusion

Considering the above, there are a number of opportunities for the festival and event market

to grow their Outdoor Arts programing. This is because Outdoor Arts can be seen to make

the elite accessible. It has particular relevance to International Art Festivals. Increasing the

programming of Outdoor Arts at these events may help to grow audiences even at different

times of the year. Outdoor Arts can be seen to create an accessible hub of activity within a

defined space and time, even if the larger festival context is interspersed with different

events and locations. It creates an opportunity for the production of something novel and

tests artist’s abilities to innovate around different environments. This produces unique arts

experiences that can have a noticeable impact on their audience’s imaginations. The

accessibility of Outdoor Arts means that it can also be programmed in a variety of locations,

but its scope must be appropriate for the place in order to create an optimal user experience.

This is vital in order to foster community engagement which is paramount for event longevity.

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