Willingness to attend cultural events in person may be on the rise
November 2021
Cultural Participation Monitor
Wave 5 | Winter 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.
Themes
Willingness to attend might be going up slightly, but still a third are not comfortable returning in-person (even before Omicron).
These trends in 2021 reflect an uptick in willingness to attend. Numbers of those not comfortable attending have fallen and with the last wave a third of people were now happy to attend without reservations. However, over a third are still not comfortable attending or uninterested. It should be noted that these responses were received before news of the Omicron variant.
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Watch nowOther findings from Wave 5 | Winter 2021
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Attendance rose significantly in 2021, even though it hasn’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels yet
In-person engagement doubled in 2021 compared to 2020, especially for film, heritage sites, and museums, while online engagement is starting to trend down.
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Audiences still care about Covid safety measures
Attenders still feel strongly about Covid safety measures in place at cultural venues, and they would like to see them continue. Ventilation and crowd management are the safety measures rated most important.
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Shifts in audience behaviour are likely to be longer term – but may bring new audiences
People are expecting to keep attending less culture in-person than they used to, with audiences likely to skew towards younger, more urban groups, or families.
