Summer Analysis

• Why people attend in the summer
• Who attends in the summer
• What about Outdoor Arts
• What this all means

In general, the main motivation is ‘to be entertained’ (24%), to spend time with friends and family (15%) and because ‘[artform] is an important part of who I am’ (13%). Along with ‘to be intellectually stimulated’ and ‘to be inspired’ (each 6%), these make up almost 2/3 of main motivations (64%).

Summer, particularly August, is different. This is the only month where the most frequent main motivation switches, to ‘spend time with friends and family’ (20%), ahead of ‘to be entertained’ (17%). ‘[Artform] is an important part of who I am’ also drops (to 9%), but ‘to entertain my children’ and ‘to educate/stimulate my children’ both rise (from 4% to 7% and 3% to 6%).

Cultural attendance is August, then, is more about other people (spending time with them, or providing them with stimulation/enjoyment) and less about ourselves (our own enjoyment, or sense of self).

Incidentally, the other notably different month is December. This follows a similar pattern to August, except that ‘to be entertained’ is as high as usual (not lower) and ‘for a special occasion’ rises to greater prominence (7%, cf. 4% overall), with ‘educate/stimulate my children’ lower. There is a stronger emphasis on fun at Christmas, along with spending time with others. Motivations are a little more concentrated, too: 69% coming from the top 5 motivations (cf. 64% overall and only 60% in August).

(top five motivations for each time period highlighted).

Shifts in motivation through the year reflect shifts within activity types, as well as shifts in the proportions of activity types at different times of the year. Many types of activity follow the overall pattern throughout the year, with dips in ‘[Artform] is an important part of who I am’ and desire ‘to be entertained’ in Summer, and rises in ‘spending time with friends and family and child-related motivations [whether to educate or entertain them].

There were, however, exceptions. Focusing on a few types of activity as examples:

• Outdoor Arts and Plays/Drama saw increases in the proportion saying their main motivation was ‘to be entertained’ in the Summer, but Music, Museums and Contemporary Visual Arts were fairly flat across the year.
• ‘[Artform] is an important part of who I am’ also stayed fairly flat for Contemporary Visual Arts and Museums in the Summer.
• Outdoor Arts went against the trend for other motivations too: with higher peaks at other times of the year for ‘Spending time with friends and family’, for ‘Educating children’ [esp. autumn and February] and even for ‘Entertaining children’ (which was second-highest in August, behind a particular peak in April (i.e. Easter holidays).

Summer visitors are almost twice as likely to be first time visitors, with the number of lapsed visitors [i.e. those who have attended before, but not in the past 12 months] remaining fairly constant throughout the year1:

Most types of activity follow this pattern, with a peak of first time visitors in August, although Musical Theatre and Plays/Drama peak slightly later (in September), whereas a couple of art forms see the peak in April to June, such as Traditional Visual Arts and Dance (with Plays/Drama and Contemporary Visual Arts peaking around July).

Summer groups are also larger (with a lower proportion of single visitors or visitors in couples)…:

However Music has a higher proportion of solo attenders in August than other months (39% compared to 23% for the year on average), as does Plays/Drama (32% compared to 21%).

Summer audiences are more likely to contain multiple adults as well as children, as the following summary of who visitors attended with shows:

Similarly, August audiences are more likely to be 35-44 (i.e. the peak age for children in the household) and less likely to be 65+, compared to the rest of the year (although there are still more of the latter than the former in absolute terms):

The profile of August attenders also shifts towards middle and lower engaged family groups: