Small Halls Festival audience is local
Amanda Murray, Clearview Township’s community culture and tourism coordinator, presented a report on the 2022 Small Halls Festival Series to council on April 24.
She said during a break forced by the pandemic the festival was reimagined as a series. Last year, 21 events were put on by more than 175 volunteers at the township’s community halls, except Avening Community Centre, from Sept. 10 to Nov. 5.
The primary objectives of the festival, said Murray, are to host a tourism event to attract people to all of Clearview Township, promote the township as a unique rural destination, and to support the viability of the community hall and partners.
Murray reported that the Small Halls Festival has an annual budget of $79,000 and the goal is to break even. “In 2022, there was $55,852 collected in revenue, of which, $28,455 was given back to the hall boards and community partners and $27,397 is retained by the township to offset marketing, programming and other event operations.”
Murray estimates that the economic impact of the festival was $350,630 in total visitors’ spending in Simcoe County based on the number of ticket sales purchased by people who live more than 40 kilometres outside of Clearview.
Of 506 total tickets sold online, 119 were purchased by Creemore residents.
“I was really surprised how strong [ticket sales] were in Creemore and I thought we would have had a stronger purchasing from Toronto. It doesn’t seem to be that way,” said Deputy Mayor Paul Van Staveren. “Our draw seems to be locally.”
Murray explained that the data is sorted by postal code, with Collingwood residents being the second largest purchasing group at 91, followed by Stayner at 73.
“We do have a strong local following,” she said. “You have to keep in mind we were just coming out of Covid. We hadn’t hosted a festival in three years so the fact that we were still able to draw from Mulmur (6), Toronto (42), and Wasaga (20), it’s still, I think, representative of the fact that we are a destination.”
“I agree,” said Mayor Doug Measures. “Good call.”
Murray also reported that 355 of the tickets were purchased by women.
“I know dog gone well that I would have been told to order my tickets too. That’s just a general thing that we do for the guys,” said Councillor Phyllis Dineen.
