Engagement is set to decline and pantos may struggle
September 2021
Cultural Participation Monitor
Wave 4 | Autumn 2021
This research is from The Audience Agency's nationwide longitudinal (ongoing) panel survey of changing views about participating in creative and cultural activities through the recent and ongoing crises, and beyond, the Cultural Participation Monitor.
Contents
Themes
People expect to engage less in general with arts, culture and heritage in the coming months, with a particular decline in interest in festive shows potentially signalling a bleak midwinter for venues.
Lower Overall Arts Engagement
People expect to engage less after Covid than before:
- mainly for Film (-8%)
- but also Live Performances (net -3%)
Museums, Galleries and Heritage sites are less affected, however (with responses mostly 'the same').
Festive Season At Risk
Only 17% rate their likelihood of attending panto this year at 8+ out of 10. Significantly less than the 23% said they attended in a typical previous year [1].
This, combined with other factors, make it look like panto may have a bad year. These factors being:
- when people say they typically book,
- the expected impact on group/school bookings,
- and the likely drop-off between intention and actual attendance.
Of course, we know how important panto and other Christmas sales are for many venues given that 14% of total sales typically come in weeks 49-52 of the year for venues in Audience Finder, so this finding represents a serious challenge.
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[1](This was based on a calculation of the percentage who said they did attend in one, two or three of the last three years). It is worth noting that this compares to 12% in Taking Part 15/16; suggesting over-reporting on both question responses.
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Other findings from Wave 4 | Autumn 2021
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Increased wellbeing is offset by continued worry
While people's sense of wellbeing continues to slowly improve, the same audiences' concern about falling ill with Covid-19 is growing, and most expect further lockdowns both this year and next.
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A lot of people still don't feel safe to attend
Willingness to attend has not increased since June and people remain worried about others' behaviour, though they don't appear to think there is much more organisations themselves should be doing to make them feel safe.
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Changed working habits may trigger a surge in localness
Most people who have worked at home for some or all of the pandemic expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable. As these tend to be high cultural engagers, they may drive increased local attendance in future.
