How many people came back for the first Arts Fest in 2 years? Here’s a look
Last week’s Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, the event’s first in-person festival since 2019, produced nearly identical attendance figures compared to past years.
According to data collected by the Downtown State College Improvement District, approximately 86,000 people visited Arts Fest a total of 127,000 times between Wednesday, July 13, and Sunday, July 17. Those figures fall just short of 2019’s recent peak when about 90,000 people logged 134,000 visits across the festival’s duration.
While the 2022 festival drew in slightly fewer visitors than 2018 (86,100 people), it succeeded in bringing visitors back. Arts Fest hosted about 127,000 visits in 2022 with visitors averaging 1.48 visits each — a notable increase from 2018’s 122,000 visits and 1.42-visit frequency.
In total, those at Arts Fest last weekend averaged 68 minutes per visit, according to the DSCID’s data. That’s down from 71 minutes in 2019 and 85 minutes in 2018.
Despite variance in figures, the last three festivals have each followed the same attendance pattern. Following slow increases over the first few days, visits peak on Saturday and bottom out on Sunday as the festivities wrap up.
The DSCID used Placer.ai to measure foot traffic within Arts Fest’s borders, including on Penn State’s campus and in downtown State College between South Fraser Street and South Allen Street down to West Fairmount Avenue. Data collected through Placer.ai, which tracks cell phone pings through geolocation technology, is considered about 96% accurate.
On top of attendance figures, Arts Fest volunteers released a few statistics highlighting the event’s efforts to become more sustainable.
Visitors recycled more than 1,500 pounds of organic materials and recyclables throughout the festival, according to Amy Schirf, the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority’s education coordinator. Vendors donated about 17 pounds of food to local shelters once the event ended.
The 2019 festival produced about 3,500 pounds of collected recyclables, according to the CCRRA.
“We were glad to be back in person for the festival,” Schirf said in a statement. “We will continue to work to minimize the amount of trash produced at this wonderful event.”
Arts Fest’s sustainability efforts are largely the work of Fest Zero, a volunteer organization that seeks to help the festival become a zero-waste operation. Arts Fest also organizes a volunteer group, dubbed the “Green Crew,” that spearheads trash collection and waste management.
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