The main aim of the research is to investigate the impact and effectiveness of the pivot to online operation of South African cultural festivals and events for organisers, artistic producers and audiences.
The main aim of the research was to investigate the impact and effectiveness of the pivot to online operation of South African cultural festivals and events for organisers, artistic producers and audiences as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. The research methods included key stakeholder interviews with 13 South African festivals that had shifted their productions online as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, as well as an online audience survey of people who had participated in such online cultural festivals or events.
For the majority of festivals, the shift to online production was a survivalist strategy done in order to maintain festival continuity, to support creatives, and to continue to deliver on their mandate to audiences and sponsors. Festivals that had already started to think about the online environment, and had some in-house expertise, found the shift to be more manageable and successful.
There are a wide variety of business models that can be used in the online environment, including freemium, subscription, sponsored, and ticket sales models. The majority of festivals in the sample used either free access or a mixture of ticket sales options and free access. None of them were able to monetise their content very effectively. However, those who already had ongoing relationships with their audiences via social media and other platforms, and who could leverage existing sponsorship relationships were more successful.
Artistic producers were very grateful for the opportunity to display their work and earn an income in a time when little else was available. Some saw the shift as an exciting opportunity to try out the new medium and reach new audiences. Others were less enthusiastic about the limitations of the online environment, and struggled to access the skills, technology and bandwidth needed to produce effectively online.
An important finding is the extent to which those festivals with resources were able to support artistic producers through things like providing facilities for filming and studio-space for “live” performances and providing skills training and advice for the shift to online delivery.
Audiences were relatively enthusiastic about being able to access cultural content online, and the majority of them said they would continue to do so in the future. They consumed a mix of South African and international content. However, they clearly missed the “vibe” and excitement associated with live events, and more than half of them spent only R100 or less on online cultural participation since the lockdown began in March 2020. Limiting factors were the poor quality of sound and visuals when accessing content on devices like mobile phones and laptops, as well as the cost of data and slow internet speeds.
Reflecting back on their experiences, festival organisers of those events that pivoted to the online environment were able to provide a number of “lessons learned”.
