Festivals - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

Audiences are generally described as ‘those interested in culture’ - a somewhat vague
definition – and their composition includes different target groups, such as local citizens,
students, young people, families and tourists, as well as professionals and amateurs.
Among the special approaches employed to reach other target groups, the following
are mentioned by the festivals: intimate concerts for specialists, open events
without charge, exciting programs responding to the expectation of the youth, innovative
advertising, bonus tickets for families, lectures and workshops, more events for
local residents or events for linguistic and cultural minorities.
The core audience is identified mainly in terms of the following groups: university
students, young people, local inhabitants, families, followed by domestic and foreign
tourists. Almost noone of the eleven festivals studies its audience with specific instruments,
restricting themselves in general to the “visual” analysis of the audience, but
aiming in the future to approach it in a more professional way. In a few cases audience
surveys are carried out by a different subject than the festival; in one case organizers
interview people during the festival.
As far as promotion and communication are concerned, there are similar strategies to
ensure a media coverage of the festival, centred on the press release, relations with the
journalists, reporters and experts, PR work and personal contacts. In some cases more
importance is given to ‘creative and unexpected ideas for media’. Information is often
updated and diffused throughout the whole year, but there is also an awareness of a
need to work out a specific long-term communication plan.
The most effective communication tools are the same for almost everyone, with a relatively
insignificant difference in priority of relevance: TV and radio, press, printed
media (flyers, newspaper advertisements, programs, posters and street advertising),
internet website; special TV programs and interviews are less frequent, and still less
developed is the informal communication and the PR work.
A very modest and unsteady effort is made by the festivals to document systematically
their own work by collecting and systematizing the memory of the festival. If
the general tendency is to archive documentation, in some cases also with photos,
registrations and video documentation, it is often perceived as an inadequate way to
keep memory, looking for a more detailed documentation system. Just in one case the
corporate memory of the festival is ensured by keeping documentation in two city
libraries, a private one and the public one.
To the more personal question of what previous experiences have been most useful to
manage a festival, the answers state that previous artistic, cultural and relational experiences
have been as useful and important as the professional experiences connected
with specific managing skills.
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