Festival pumps $6M into local economy
Published Monday September 19th, 2011
Not singing the blues | Annual event pays off
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By STEPHEN LLEWELLYN
llewellyn.stephen@dailygleaner.com
The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival pumps about $6 million a year into the Fredericton economy, says one of the organizers.
Festival communications director David Seabrook said the festival also extends the capital's tourism season into the fall and about 30 per cent of the audience travels to the city from other areas for the event.
"That's a huge shot in the arm to the city's hospitality industry, hotels, restaurants, taxi companies and audio-visual companies," he said.
"It's the best weekend of the year for many of our restaurants. It's tremendously important coming at the end of the peak traditional tourism season."
Chris Black, owner of The Blue Door restaurant on the corner of Regent and King streets, said festival week is his busiest week of the year.
"It's very good for business," he said. "It starts basically on the Tuesday night with the show at The Playhouse and continues to ramp up right through the weekend."
It's so busy that when Black hires students for the summer, he tells them they have to be available to work on the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival weekend.
"It's great for the staff because they are all working and making money," he said. "Everybody is starting school again, so they have expenses. It's a great way to finish off the summer season."
He also said the vibe in the restaurant is great during festival week.
"Everybody is just having fun," he said. "They want to eat, of course, but they just want to suck up the atmosphere of Harvest."
Seabrook said the number of people coming from outside Fredericton to enjoy the festival has been steadily growing over the years.
"It has been the goal of the six-day festival to grow the tourism visitation audience as we develop into a national-class festival," he said.
The festival advertises in places such as Saint John, Moncton, Woodstock and Halifax, he said.
It also takes out ads in specialty jazz and blues magazines and goes to trade shows in conjunction with the city and the province, said Seabrook. The festival sends promotional teams to other jazz and blues festivals in the region, he said.
"We also have a strong social media campaign that reaches out to those audiences."
He said the economic impact of the festival as a tourism destination can be increased by extending the festival's daytime programming so people have something to do throughout the day.
Another benefit is the synergy it provides to other community activities, said Seabrook.
Both the Feast in the Field and the United Way fundraising campaign kickoff were held in the festival tent in Officers Square, he said.
"Simply by cooperating and leveraging each others' assets, we, as a community, can have greater activity," he said.
Seabrook said the festival isn't trying to get much bigger physically, even though it has access to the new downtown convention centre.
"The goal is to increase the quality of the festival and increasingly appeal to outside markets. We'll see where it goes."
Bruce McCormack, general manager of Downtown Fredericton Inc., said the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival is like Christmas in September for the local economy.
"It impacts every business," he said. "It's a win-win for downtown. Our accommodations are full. Our restaurants are full. You couldn't get a reservation on Saturday night if you wanted to."
McCormack said when the festival first started in 1990, there was concern from many retailers that it would hurt their businesses with traffic jams, loss of sales to temporary food venders and loss of parking from the tents.
"Well, that has done a triple flip and now they look forward to this festival because people do come and buy shoes," he said. "They do come in and buy clothes that they need to get them through the next night."
McCormack said the weather affects the festival turnout and its economic impact. On warm, dry nights, the streets are packed and that's good for business, he said.
"We have another group of people (other than event ticket holders) who come into the downtown, probably in the area of 5,000 to 10,000 each night, that just walk around," he said.
"But if it is pouring down rain, windy and cold, they don't come."
Festival organizers realize that street atmosphere is important, so they provide free concerts, something that can be rare at other similar festivals, said McCormack.
"They just keep adding more and more events that just make the festival that much better," he said.
http://nbbusinessjournal.canadaeast....rticle/1441062
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