An Audience Insight Wales report using evidence from Audience Answers.
Last year an estimated 69% of the Welsh population attended an arts event.1 Who were they? What did they do? How have their attendance behaviours changed in recent years? And maybe more importantly, who wasn’t in this number and why do we think that is?
This report explores The Audience Agency’s national audience datasets to try to answer some of these questions. Together, our aim is to give Welsh arts, culture and heritage organisations an evidence-base for what the bigger picture looks like for audiences in Wales, and where we see current trends leading.
Key findings
Welsh venues are outpacing the UK-wide, 5 year trend, with a strong increase in ticket sales despite a relatively small rise in programming.
Fewer events in Wales now fit neatly into traditional genres or artforms. Among those that do, programming for dance and music is increasing, while compared to 5 years ago, there are less family events and musicals being programmed.
Wales’ larger venues are engaging older audiences with high-medium cultural engagement, mid‑scale venues are drawing more families, and smaller venues are the ones connecting with younger, highly engaged cultural segments.
Engagement from Home & Heritage audiences have seen a sharply downward trend UK-wide, however, this group continue to make up an important, regularly attending part of the Welsh audience base – particularly for mid-scale venues in semi-rural areas.
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