1. Growing the field
A comparative study of Outdoor Arts programming in Australian festivals
and special events
Adam Direen
June 2015

2. 1
Contents
Abstract..................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................................................................3
Methodology and Scope .................................................................................................................3
Outdoor Arts and Festivals: What are the distinctions?................................................................5
The Melbourne Environment ..............................................................................................................7
SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival................................................................................................7
White Night......................................................................................................................................10
Moomba...........................................................................................................................................12
Wider Australia ...................................................................................................................................14
WOMADelaide................................................................................................................................14
Perth International Arts Festival...................................................................................................15
Common Threads and Differences..................................................................................................18
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................23
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................24
Cover Image: (Clockwise) Flinders Station White Night 2013, WOMADelaide main stage 2014, The
Giants by Royal Du Lux Perth International Arts Festival 2015, Pixel Mountain by Stalker Theatre at
SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival 2015

3. 2
Abstract
This report provides a comparative analysis of how Outdoor Arts are programmed within five
major Australian festivals and events. In its appraisal it also considers audience responses,
community reception and online engagement of these festivals and events as well as arts,
festival and event industry academic literature. The aim is to identify possible areas of
growth within Outdoor Arts programming.
For the purposes of the report, “Outdoor Arts” is a broad term used to encapsulate the
performance or situation of multidisciplinary arts practice in an outdoor environment.
The report examines Moomba Festival, the Perth International Arts Festival, White Night
Melbourne, SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival and WOMADelaide within its scope.
Key findings were:
 In all of the case studies, Outdoor Arts programming represented an important or
central part of the festival and events content.
 Each of the festivals and events mentioned have similarities in their cultural product
however see themselves with different identities.
 Outdoor Arts and festivals are inextricably linked. Outdoor arts are seen to make
conceptually “elite” art forms accessible to a wider audience. They can create a hub
of activity within a defined space and time, even if the larger festival context is
interspersed with different events and locations.
 Outdoor Arts create an opportunity for the production of something novel and tests
artist’s abilities to innovate around different environments. This produces unique arts
experiences that can have a noticeable impact on their audience’s imaginations.
 The accessibility of Outdoor Arts means that it can also be programmed in a variety
of locations, but its scope must be appropriate for the place in order to create an
optimal user experience. This is vital in order to foster community engagement which
is paramount for event longevity.

4. 3
Introduction
“Australian’s don’t do Outdoor Arts very well” was the provocation offered by an anonymous
source within the Melbourne Recital Centre. At the end of a chat over coffee, it was
declared as a personal, off the cuff statement. Yet it is also a comment that opens up an
interesting field of inquiry. The landscape of Australian arts programming is increasingly
becoming intertwined with a festival and event based ecology, blurring the lines between
disciplines and traditional audience demographics. Aside from large popular music festivals,
nearly every state in Australia has its own international arts festival, all supported with public
funding due to the recognised prestige they accrue and the cultural capacity they build within
their communities. Within this burgeoning festival market programmers seek to diversify
their content in order to provide a more varied experience for their audiences. One such
method of diversification has been through programming Outdoor Arts. These typically have
the benefits of being free, large public spectacles that help to capture the festive atmosphere
and encourage audience consumption within their given context. The deconstruction of
traditional venues for arts practice, whether they are of a visual or performative nature is also
seen to be a method of rejuvenating spaces which lack public relevance. This programming
style is not necessarily a new concept either. International events have featured Outdoor
Arts practices for many years too.
The aim of this research report is to identify possible areas for growth within Outdoor Arts
programming. It will seek to gain some insight into what audiences perceive of their
experiences and why by examining:
 The 2015 artistic program from five Australian festival and event’s.
 Audience responses, community reception and online engagement of these festivals
and events
 Arts, festival and event industry academic literature
Methodology and Scope
For its comparison the report will primarily examine five major festivals and events across
the country. They are SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival, White Night, Perth International
Arts Festival, Moomba Festival and WOMADelaide. These have been chosen due to their
similarities in location, audience demographic, and program content. The research will draw
upon industry reports, website material, social media statistics as well as academic studies
to elucidate its findings.

5. 4
Part 1 will examine what Outdoor Arts encompasses as well as how it is tied to a festival and
event based ecology. Part 2 will examine the program content and audience attendance of
the Melbourne based events, SummerSalt, White Night and Moomba. Part 3 will scrutinize
WOMADelaide and the Perth International Arts Festival for examples on how Outdoor Arts
are produced interstate. Part 4 will highlight the common threads and distinctions from the
research. The conclusion will identify opportunities for growth within the sector.
It is important to remember that a study such as this opens up a wide array of possible
considerations and research approaches. Due to the lack of available official data for some
of these events as well as the constraints of time and length, this study is intended not as a
definitive solution to the given investigation but as a guide to further areas of exploration and
consideration. It is hoped that the report may be useful to the Melbourne Recital Centre and
other relevant stakeholders who are investing in Outdoor Arts programming in the future.

6. 5
Outdoor Arts and Festivals: What are the distinctions?
The concept of Outdoor Arts is not necessarily a new one. As far back as 1902, Warren H
Manning used the term in reference to a positive outcome resulting from the popular “World
Fair” or exposition concept that many cities across the world had adopted. He included in
his definition of Outdoor Arts “land scape design, architecture, sculpture, the closely allied
industries of floriculture and horticulture, and so forth… (1902, p. 172).” What Manning
describes here is what has come to be known as Public Art. This is itself a term which
sometimes defies categorisation. Robert Russell however explains it as “artworks outside
museum and gallery walls” including “the various forms that public art can take, including
murals (e.g., wall paintings and mosaics), three dimensional works (e.g., statuary and
earthworks), and performance pieces (e.g., Happenings) (2004, p. 19).”
As an extension of this idea, Outdoor Arts effectively takes these and other art forms that
would normally be located in a building “to the streets.” The motivations for doing so are
varied. An arts organisation such as a theatre company might want to perform in an outdoor
venue due to aims associated with greater accessibility to new audiences. A dance group
may recognise there is an important artistic resonance that an unconventional space has
with their new piece. Or an orchestra may want to achieve a specific social or cultural
outcome by performing a work within a non-traditional setting. While many of these
disciplines have been performed in an outdoor environment at varying points throughout
history, “Outdoor Arts” specifically refers to the combination of these cultural enterprises in a
unified time and space. For the purposes of this report then, “Outdoor Arts” is a broad term
used to encapsulate the performance or situation of multidisciplinary arts practice in an
outdoor environment. It includes forms of public art as well as arts practices such as dance,
opera, theatre, live music, design and other forms of street performance.
Outdoor Arts practice has found its way into a burgeoning festival and large scale event
market, ostensibly through the prolific spread of international arts and music festivals during
the latter part of the twentieth century. There is a perception that many traditional arts
festivals cater for the cultural elite or highly developed tastes through the programming of
opera, chamber music, modern jazz and Avant-Garde films (Waterman, 1998, p. 60). The
use of Outdoor Arts within festival environments helps to break down some of these
distinctions. A study of Outdoor Art festivals in the United States recognised that the
diversity offered by a festival context “provides attenders an opportunity to experience new
styles of art, potentially ones they would not seek out independently and, thus, festivals were
viewed by respondents as a gateway to new kinds of arts attendance (Rosenstein, 2010, p.
26).” Arts practices have played an important role within festivals though out human history,

7. 6
the details of which are outside the scope of this report. Stanley Waterman however,
believes that although “arts festivals today have only tenuous links with the ancient seasonal
festivals that have religious or cult origins (1998, p. 58)”, society continues to draw upon the
same vocabulary. “In other words, we transform the everyday space of the familiar and the
mundane to one that is otherworldly and spiritually uplifting, even if the jollity and
improvement are serious stuff (Waterman, 1998, p. 58).”
The desires for producing a festival or cultural event in contemporary society are numerous.
Stephen Alomes notes throughout the twentieth century cultural festivals and special events
rose and fell in significance in Australia. He observes that “in the contemporary world
tradition is something which grows readily over surprisingly short periods of time (1985, p.
5).” Many traditional holidays and celebrations prominent during the 19th
century were
supplanted in the middle of the twentieth century due to changing influences and cultural
values. Festivals may be truly community inspired or a thematically designed to celebrate a
person, place or thing. Waterman states that they may also be aesthetically created to grant
recognition to a particular artist, discipline, period or genre (1998, p. 59). Increasingly
however, the anticipated outcomes are becoming more instrumental in nature. Aalst and
Melik believe that “decision-makers feel they need to mount a festival to be able to compete
with other cities – preferably an international festival that attracts media attention and a wide
audience (2011, pp. 195-196).” Festivals are seen to promote a consumption of culture
which is widely recognised as a source of prosperity. Their injection into local economies
operates “at the interface of art and culture, the media, tourism and recreation (Van Melik,
2011, p. 196).” It is within this cauldron of influences that Outdoor Arts practice finds itself
existing, inextricably linked to the festival market.

8. 7
The Melbourne Environment
SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival
The SummerSalt Outdoor Arts Festival (SummerSalt) was a multidisciplinary arts event
which ran for the first time over the course of four weeks from the 23rd
of January to the 21st
of February 2015. It featured a variety of artistic programming from live music, dance,
theatre and opera to processional performances, installations and street art in a mix of free
and ticketed events. It was created with the specific goal to bring Melbourne’s Southbank
precinct to life through outdoor art during the peak summer tourist season. SummerSalt was
produced by the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) in collaboration with ten other core
partners from Melbourne’s leading arts organisations. Many of these are based within the
Southbank arts precinct.
The festival evolved from a previous MRC event called The Garden Party in 2013 which was
a four weekend music festival in a vacant car parking lot behind the Recital Centre
(Melbourne Recital Centre, 2013). 6399 people attended including 1000 at an Australia Day
party, 60% of which had never attended a recital centre event before. It featured over 140
local and international musicians from a variety of genres and the gravel car park was
transformed with fake grass, deck chairs, food vendors and a stage. The idea of expanding
the event to use other underutilised spaces in Southbank was received well by neighbours
within the precinct. A festival concept was developed a consortium of arts precinct partners
and a funding pitch sent to the state government of Victoria. The festival organisers were
promised a government grant of $1,000,000 (SummerSalt Festival Information, 2015). The
extra budget requirements were sought from sponsorship and ticket sales. The government
funding was approved in June 2014 and the festival was slated for a January 2015 opening.
This left the organisers with a very short turn around window.
Various parts of the festival took place across 26 different locations in and around the
Southbank area. A central festival hub was located on Dodds Street next to the Victorian
College of the Arts and the Melbourne Theatre Company. The festival hub featured three
stages as well as spaces for more intimate performances. It also contained food and drink
vendors, its own lighting design, and an ever changing layout depending on what was being
performed each week. Other performances utilised spaces close by such as various areas
of the VCA, the MRC carpark, and the ACCA forecourt. Further afield, multiple events were
hosted at outdoor areas such as Testing Grounds, the Hamer Hall Terrace, Southgate,
promenade and the Arts Centre forecourt. It is important to note that due to the four week

9. 8
time period of the event, only a small number of the locations were ever in use at the one
time. This resulted in large gaps in programming within certain areas. The exception to this
was the festival hub which usually contained some sort of artistic program throughout its
opening hours.
The primary ticketed events were usually programmed on the festival hub main stage.
These included the musical performances of Women of Soul, cabaret shows by Mitchell
Butel and Tina C, dance performances by the Melbourne Ballet Company, as well as circus
and physical theatre which featured Scotch & Soda and Pixel Mountain. Testing Grounds, a
City of Melbourne venue located on a vacant lot behind the Australian Ballet Centre, also
hosted three live music events featuring a variety of bands and styles which played well into
the evening. There were a number of children’s performance groups which typically
performed in the morning hours on the street stage of the festival hub. These attracted
family groups (60% with children) who filled the site during the mornings and early
afternoons (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 5). Many of the smaller free performances toured a
variety of sites around the festival, including the hub where they either featured on the street
stage or as roving artists. These included the dance pieces Escape to the Infinite,
Circulations and Gentle is the Power. Also prominent were the family works Minute Exhibit,
A moment Caravan, Cocoloco and Something Fishy.
The festival featured a number of inflatable art works namely the Creature Feature giant
inflatable’s each with its own individual name and story. “Lady Leviathan” was a giant squid
like creature that protruded from the upper windows of Hamer Hall at the Arts Centre, and
was noticeable from the CBD as well as many points on the Yarra River. “Puck the Baby
Dino” was originally placed on the MRC roof but moved in later weeks to the festival hub.
“Bumblebee” was lodged deliberately into part of the MRC entrance overhang and “Shine”
featured prominently on top of the hub bar. Another important inflatable artwork, Exxpolis by
the Architects of Air, operated from the ACCA forecourt for the first week of the festival
attracting large crowds. It was a piece that was touring the country and also featured
prominently at the MONA FOMA and WOMADelaide festivals. Essentially a large structure
which can be walked through, the shell of the work filters light to provide a dazzling
experience to those inside.
Festival attendances were counted at 162,923 of which at least 54,500 were unique visitors
over its 14 days of operation (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 5). Due to the fact that people may
have attended multiple events in one day, the unique visitor number gives a clearer baseline
to draw conclusions from. These people were mostly from greater Melbourne (85%) and the
largest group (40%) were aged between 35 and 49 years of age. 14% of these people

10. 9
stated that their visit to a SummerSalt event was the first time they had ventured into the arts
precinct this year (EY Sweeney, 2015).
A simple 1-5 scale (1 being very poor and 5 being excellent) measured different aspects of
the festival. 85% of the participants rated their overall festival experience as “good” or
“excellent” with only 2% describing it as poor. The variety and quality of content was
something received well by audiences with 77% liking the diversity and 87% believing that
the quality of the content was either “good” or “excellent”. However the “general buzz or
atmosphere surrounding the festival” had a 14% disapproval rate with a mean score 3.68.
This combined with a mean score of 3.46 for “the choice of food or drinks available”
highlights that there is room for improvement in providing patrons a complete festival
experience (EY Sweeney, 2015). Another section asked audience members to grade on a
1-5 scale whether they agreed or disagreed with certain statements about the festival. In a
positive sign for Outdoor Arts, 93% of people agreed with the statement “I like it that
SummerSalt takes arts events into non-traditional outdoor spaces” and again with “the
SummerSalt Festival is a great way of making arts and culture accessible to a wider
audience.” Importantly for arts programmers, 77% of people agreed with the statement “the
SummerSalt Festival increases my likelihood of attending arts and cultural events at this
time of year (EY Sweeney, 2015).”
Festival stakeholders also provided a collection of qualitative feedback with the general
feeling being that although the motivations behind the event were supported, the execution
needed improvement. Stakeholders highlighted
…the sense of emptiness, and a lack of activation at some of the events and activities.
As a result they felt it lacked in atmosphere…there was also concern that the event
was disjointed and pieced together, rather than successfully unifying the space and the
venues (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 8).
The online presence of SummerSalt was represented through the dedicated website and
social media platforms Facebook, twitter and Instagram, connected with the hashtag
#saltyarts. As of June 2015 the Facebook page has 1,937 likes, the Twitter account has 369
followers and the Instagram profile has 483 followers. Interestingly, 20% of local businesses
rated the marketing activities of SummerSalt in the press, radio and online as being “not
too/not successful at all (EY Sweeney, 2015, p. 39).”

11. 10
White Night
White Night is an annual large scale multi-disciplinary arts event which takes place within the
Melbourne CBD for one night in February. It runs from 7pm to 7am and attracts nearly
500,000 people to the city. The event features visual art, sound and light shows,
installations, theatre, music, film, exhibitions, design and other types of performance in a mix
of free and ticketed events. Artists and performers are sourced both from Australia and
internationally. Part of the initial success of White Night was the ability of organisers to
negotiate with major cultural institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Australian
Centre for Moving Image, Federation Square and the Arts Centre. For the first time ever
these organisations simultaneously operated throughout the evening.
Inspired by the international network of Nuit Blanche (the translation from French literally
meaning “White Night”) events, White Night Melbourne is funded and organised by the
Victorian Major Events Company (VMEC). They are a non for profit entity established in
1991, which works closely with and is funded by the state government of Victoria. Since its
conception in Paris in 2002, Nuit Blanche has gained notoriety internationally, with events
now being held within 20 major cities across the world. Each White Night is sculpted to the
unique characteristics of each location however maintains the core goal of making “art and
culture accessible to large audiences within public spaces (White Night Melbourne, 2015).”
The night is executed by Right Angle Events, a large scale event management company
based in Melbourne whose previous credits include the production of the Rugby World Cup.
The funding for White Night was secured for three years by former premier Ted Baillieu from
2013 – 2015. VMEC and Right Angle Events are currently in negotiations for a new round of
funding from the state government, despite “an $80 million boost (Puvanenthiran, 2015)” to
VMEC’s overall funding in the 2015 Victorian state budget. The event budget has never
been disclosed but is expected to be in the millions.
Before the 2013 White Night opened, it was criticised for a lack of direction or purpose.
Commentators such as former Queensland Art Gallery Director Doug Hall, described the
event as a “cultural one night stand with bragging rights” and a “schoolies for culture
(Cuthbertson, 2012).” Despite some of the negative publicity 300,000 people attended the
first event which pushed the organisers and cities infrastructure to the limit. Since then the
event has been modified to allow for growth although 2015 crowd estimates were down on
the 2014 figure of 550,000 people. The Age arts editor, Debbie Cuthbertson believed that
the “their efforts have paid off, with the crush of previous years reduced and the flow of foot
traffic vastly improved (2015).”

12. 11
The 2015 event utilised the distinction of 9 precincts running in a southerly direction from the
northern point of the CBD, right through to the NGV and Alexandra Gardens in the South.
The names for each of the precincts include titles such as “Rivers of Gold”, “The Big Chill,”
“Wonderland,” “4 Elements” and “The Engine.” Each one is home to a number of different
events; although how their names relate back to the content or location is not always clear.
The arts events featured in White Night are many and varied. There was a large music stage
placed on the Engineers lawn of the Alexandra Gardens which featured a variety of acts
including hip artist Remi, synth rock band Jack Ladder and the Dreamlanders, “international
mini orchestra” the Tek Tek ensemble as well as soul rock artist Stella Angelico. Sita’s
Garden personally directed by event director Andrew Walsh, presented a host of Bollywood
dancers on a large barge progressing down the river surrounded by illuminated floating Lilly
pads. The Crucible was a large metal dragon placed on Birrarung Marr which literally
spouted fire out of its mouth. Large projections onto buildings have been a feature of White
Night for all three events and one of the highlights of 2015 was 4 Elements. Here, the entire
front façade of the Royal Exhibition Building was illuminated with projections of four dancing
bodies representing earth, wind, fire and water. Other large scale projections were also
placed around the city. An outdoor cinema was set up in the Bourke Street Mall and large
illuminated human stick figures, Key Frames, were planted in the NGV fountains. Further up
Melbourne’s lane ways were smaller scale live art events (White Night Melbourne, 2015).
The White Night website provides direct entry points to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Youtube and Google Plus. Since its inception the Facebook page has had 61,937 likes as
of May 2015. 8, 427 people have checked in at the event and there have been 159 reviews
with an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars. The Twitter page has 12,800 followers and has
had 897 tweets made. The Instagram account has 4,905 followers and has made 162 posts.
The online reviews tell an interesting tale across the two year period this function has been
active. It would appear that people had very strong opinions of the event with 72 people
posting 5 stars and 33 people posting 1 star. The rest had between 15 & 20 (White Night
Melbourne, 2015). As opposed to Debbie Cuthbertson, strong criticisms (as with other
years) mostly focused on the sheer size of the crowds and the related difficulty of
movement/queues. Residents in apartment buildings were left upset when noise levels from
music events carried on till 7am. Some people felt lost and noted that crowds had to travel
large distances to see certain installations, although this may be due to a crowd
management decision rather than an artistic one. There were also criticisms directed
towards the functionality of the White Night phone app leaving some patrons confused. This
being said, most reviews were largely positive. Interestingly many of the people who had
positive feedback also said they attended later on in the evening. Words like spectacular,

13. 12
excellent, jaw-dropping, fantastic and great were used to describe peoples overall event
experience. Despite this Cuthbertson believed that “the atmosphere was lacking, and for me
there were fewer powerful, compelling and even audacious acts (2015)” when compared to
previous years.
Moomba
Established in 1955 by the City of Melbourne, Moomba is the annual river carnival which
takes place from the 6 – 9th
of March. It features an array of free entertainment including
concerts, parades, sporting competitions, a birdman contest, children’s performers, rides and
a fireworks display. While not specifically an arts event, Moomba is recognised as one of
Australia’s most iconic outdoor community festivals (City of Melbourne, 2015). It occurs at a
similar time of year and geographical location to both White Night and SummerSalt.
Throughout the festival’s four days in 2015 an estimated 1.25 million people attended (Hunt,
2015). The event is organised by walkerabercrombie, a large scale event management firm
based in Northcote, Victoria. The festival has a total budget of $2.9 million (Fuss, 2015).
The general program for Moomba 2015 was laid out into five distinct precincts. These were
the Main Arena, the Skate Park, the River, the Kids Zone and The Green. Some of these
were based on the northern side of the river and some on the southern side. Access
between banks of the river was either through the Princes Bridge or the Swan St Bridge at
opposite ends of the site. Each precinct also contains several smaller locations in which
content was programmed. The Main Stage was located in the very centre of the festival
grounds and typically presented some of the more well-known musical items. The Green
and its “Push Stage” saw the performances of Melbourne’s up and coming artists. The Kids
Zone contained an array of family and children’s entertainment while the River featured a
collection of water sports and film screenings. The Skate Park was specifically used for
skate related sports and entertainment. While in reality, some of the precincts weren’t
physically contained to one area their designation was particularly effective in the
presentation of the online program. Headline bands on the main stage occupying the
primary 8:30pm time slot were Jebediah on Saturday night, You am I on Sunday night and
the Hoodoo Gurus on Monday night. Each act was followed by fireworks at 9:30pm. While
these events occurred there were also bands playing at 8:00pm and 9:00pm on the Push
Stage in the Green Zone. One of the highlights of the event is the Moomba Parade, a
processional event which travels down St Kilda Road to the Yarra river bank. In 2015
80,000 people attended (Partland, 2015). The parade features floats designed by the
community one of which will hold the Moomba King and Queen which for 2015 were Shane

14. 13
Warne and Pallavi Sharda (Partland, 2015). These temporary monarchs act as festival
ambassadors helping to communicate aspects of the event to the community.
Data surrounding festival attendances is organised into the types of groups people attended
with. 77% of attendees were from Melbourne metropolitan areas, 15% from regional
Victoria, 2% from interstate and 4% were from overseas (Hunt, 2015). In 2015 55% of
people attended with immediate family members, followed by a partner/spouse and then with
friends (Hunt, 2015). The average age of attendance was 34.9 years of age and the
average amount of children per group was 0.9. Average group sizes were 4.3 people. The
above data highlights the family orientated makeup of visitors. Attendees are adults with at
least one child in tow. Backing this conclusion up, the most popular reason for attending
was highlighted as “I wanted to take my family (Hunt, 2015).” The most popular day of
Moomba was Sunday the 8th
where 515,000 people passed through the festival. Survey
responses to the event were generally good, overall 89% of people gave the festival a
positive rating. Interestingly, a 2006 survey of Moomba’s wider effect within the community
stated that when compared to the Australian Grand Prix “the Moomba festival was seen as
being more negative in terms of the litter generated and the excessive drinking and/or drug
use associated with the event (Fredline, 2006, p. 23).” However it was “seen as better in
terms of the creation of social capital type benefits such as promoting values that are good
and giving residents an opportunity to have fun with their families and friends (Fredline,
2006, p. 24).”
Moomba’s website links directly to Facebook, twitter and Instagram. As of May 2015 the
Facebook page has 22,765 likes, while the Twitter and Instagram accounts have 1854
followers each. Moomba’s twitter page has had 285 posts across three years of operation
and each post receives numerous likes and occasional comments. The Twitter page is also
very active with 1891 tweets being made since its inception. Posts on all platforms featured
eye catching images of the events which noticeably helped in attracting user engagement.
User engagement tended to be tracked through the shares, comments and likes of particular
posts. Many posts on Facebook for instance received likes counted in the hundreds (City of
Melbourne, 2015). There were a number of complaints made to the Facebook page
commenting on the late start to the parade, length of queues, poor use of the large TV
screens and lack of ATM access (City of Melbourne, 2015).

15. 14
Wider Australia
WOMADelaide
WOMADelaide is a major outdoor festival which takes place in Adelaide’s Botanic Park from
the 6th
– 9th
of March. The “World of Music, Art, and Dance” (WOMAD) is a concept created
by musician Peter Gabriel in the United Kingdom in 1982. In 1992 it came to Australia and
has since been based in Adelaide. Over 4 days 95,000 people attended the 2015 event,
witnessing the work of over 400 artists (WOMADelaide, 2015). Like the name suggests,
WOMADelaide features a strong line-up of local and international musicians, visual artists,
dancers, as well as key note speakers dealing with the environment. The event is produced
by the WOMADelaide Foundation and managed by Arts Projects Australia which is based in
Unley in South Australia.
The festival site for WOMADelaide stretches between Frome and Hackney Roads in Botanic
Park and is approximately 600 metres long by 400 metres wide at its largest point. Within
this space there are 7 stages and numerous themed “Zones.” This includes a Kids Zone,
Global Arts and Craft, the Global Display, the Healing Village, Global Food as well as a
hammock zone. The main stage is positioned roughly in the middle of the site. Interspersed
between all these are numerous bars and other vendors. The program was designed as
such that no more than six events were happening at any one time (WOMADelaide, 2015).
The line-up of musical acts was incredibly diverse. There were representatives from many
different countries and styles of music. The headline act could be considered to have been
Sinead O’Conner who on the final Monday night performed to a large crowd on the main
stage (Sutton, 2015). “The planet talks” were a series of public panel discussions made up
of well-known Australian and International identities surrounding the themes of sustainability
and the environment. The Kids Zone included a range of activities including appearances by
author Andy Griffiths, interactive theatre pieces, as well as art workshops designed for
children. The Taste the World program featured an international culinary adventure where
artists from around the world help to cook up their native dishes. Supporting this program
was the Street in the Park – Taste the World Restaurant where chef Jock Zonfrillo designed
a special menu for the festival. Unlike the rest of the Taste the World program, Street in the
Park was provided in a full service setting. Numerous workshops and Q & A sessions were
also a feature of the WOMADelaide program. These included music and dance classes
across different styles as well as conversations with artists and public figures like Peter
Garrett. There were other individual events programmed too. Exxpolis, which also

16. 15
appeared at SummerSalt, ran for the length of the festival. The Colour of Time Parade, a
reinvention of India’s Holi festival, invited a large crowd of people to “erupt in a frenzy of
music colour and dance (WOMADelaide, 2015).” Led by the performance group Artonik, this
finished with a crescendo of colour made from the beautiful gulal powder as its various
shades are thrown into the air. There were also makeup and hair artistry from Spain and a
320 kilogram human Kelly doll from France.
WOMADelaide’s website provides entry points for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and
YouTube. Their Facebook page has 20,530 likes as of May 2015. Since its inception,
12,760 people have checked themselves in and the festival has received 464 user reviews,
with an average review of 4.7 out of 5 stars (WOMADelaide, 2015). Their Twitter feed has
6,888 followers and has made 1440 tweets. The Instagram account has 1,753 followers and
has made 149 posts. Of the 465 online Facebook reviews received since the feature
became available, 379 people have rated their experience as 5 stars and 58 gave 4 stars.
Overwhelmingly the feedback is positive in nature. One example of a 2015 review
commented that the festival was “absolutely fabulous. First time attendee but would
definitely go again. Well organised. Wonderful mix of music from all over the world. Loved
the Air Architecture Display. Great food. Well behaved crowds (WOMADelaide, 2015).”
Another said her “heart sings when I hear the worlds music in my ears (WOMADelaide,
2015).” In an interview with the ABC, prominent Adelaide radio personality Myf Warhurst
stated “one of the best laid out festivals I've ever been to… You can just wander around,
you can stay under the trees, you can have a beautiful time, see music that you've never
seen before, and be blown away by music from places you never thought you'd hear
music from (Sutton, 2015).” Criticisms mostly centred on a lack of toilets for patrons and
the unclean state of the ones that were present. This aspect alone was enough for some
people to give lower scoring reviews, with one person stating that there were “not enough
....and filthy with waste flowing out (WOMADelaide, 2015).”
Perth International Arts Festival
Established in 1953, the Perth International Arts Festival (PIAF) is the longest running
cultural festivals of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. Produced by the University of
Western Australia, in 2015 it ran from the 13th
of February – 7th
March. The festival
programs events largely within Perth but also includes locations in the Greater Southern
Region of Western Australia attracting an audience over 700,000 people on average. It is a
multi-art form festival featuring theatre, visual art, dance, opera, public works, street art, film
and literature. PIAF reportedly has a total budget of $22.4 million (Taylor, 2015). The

17. 16
festival coincides with the Fringe World festival in Perth and includes the Perth Writers
Festival and the Great Southern Festival as umbrella events.
While not specifically an Outdoor Arts festival, the 2015 event featured Royal De lux’s world
famous The Giants as the headline act. Artistic director Jonathon Holloway reportedly spent
$5.4 million on bringing Royal De Lux to Perth in his last year at the helm of the festival
(Taylor, 2015). The Giants has toured internationally for several years now and the visit to
Australia had festival organisers tie a story around ANZAC day into the performance. Over
three days thousands of people lined the streets to witness the journey of the “little girl” and
“the diver” through the streets of Perth. The pair are actually large marionette puppets, six
and eleven metres tall, operated through a complicated system of pulleys and wires by a
large crew. An estimated 1.4 million people witnessed the performance, 829,488 of which
came into the city specifically for the event (Vickery, 2015). The event reportedly generated
$37.6 million in income within Perth (Vickery, 2015). The incredible response to the event
has made Royal De Lux’s visit one of the biggest arts events in the nation’s history.
Other outdoor events were programmed too. The Lotterywest Film Festival screened a
variety of international films outdoors in large open theatres across two locations. There
were however a number of screenings cancelled due to inclement weather (Perth
International Arts Festival, 2015). The Chevron Festival Gardens based in the Western
Australian Museum grounds, provided a central hub for some of the contemporary musical
acts to perform. Essentially a pop up space, the gardens also contained a bar and food
vendors creating a “back yard style feel (University of Western Australia, 2015).” Another
notable performance was by the band London Grammar who attracted thousands of people
to an outdoor concert at the Red Hill auditorium outside of Perth.
The 2015 website creates entry points for a number of social media platforms including
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Spotify. The Facebook page has 38,809 likes
and 821 people have checked in at festival events as of May 2015. It has an average rating
of 4.6 out of 5 five stars from 85 reviews (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015). The
Twitter page has 26,215 followers and has made nearly 5,570 tweets. The Instagram
account has 4,977 followers and 252 posts have been made. Of the 85 online Facebook
reviews posted since the feature became available, 68 people rated their experience with 5
stars and 8 people with 4 stars. Most of these reviews commented on The Giants event.
One 5 star review stated “spent this morning watching the giant diver wake up and walk
Wellington Street. Awesome! What an atmosphere! Thanks for bringing such a beautiful
piece of street theatre to our little city (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015).” Another
visitor, clearly happy with her experience commented “AMAZING, SUPERFANTASTIC,

18. 17
AWESOME, GREAT & BREATHTAKING OMG (Perth International Arts Festival, 2015).”
Criticisms of the giants were mainly directed towards issues with audience sight lines and
events not starting on time.

19. 18
Common Threads and Differences
While seemingly different in their implementation, the five case studies reveal some
interesting similarities as well as some important distinctions.
Audience relationship with Outdoor Arts
In all of the case studies, Outdoor Arts programming represented an important or central part
of the festival and events content. Events drew large crowds and provided opportunity for
artists to showcase their work. There are a number of reasons why Outdoor Arts
programming may be appealing. Responses across all events highlighted that people were
positively affected by various art forms and that these left a lasting impact. The novelty of
seeing something new and unfamiliar within a festival environment created a sense of
wonder or amazement in audiences at many of the case study festivals. While this effect
can be produced by a variety of art forms, the impact of “spectacle” events cannot be
underestimated. Enormous crowds attended The Giants at PIAF and White Night. These
were both free events which were easily accessible designed to have a definite “wow” factor.
Part 1 of this report referenced the accessibility of Outdoor Arts as key to its success.
Rosenstein highlights that an essential component of this is the aspect of choice. The
outdoor festival environment has many artworks on offer and the audience member is only
bound to a piece as long as they want to be. She notes that “respondents in the volunteer
focus groups said they believe this ability to approach unusual or challenging artwork while
feeling free to control how long they engage with that work is an important reason audiences
appreciate visiting festivals (2010, p. 26).” The deconstruction of the barriers of
establishment is seen to be particularly important for fostering a family friendly environment.
This can be seen in the demographics that attended Moomba, SummerSalt, WOMADelaide
and The Giants at PIAF. Again, Rosenstein states that focus group respondents “believe
that festivals embrace and foster this family-friendly atmosphere (2010, p. 25).”
The impact Outdoor Arts programming has on people is important to the wider arts and
culture industry too. It may provide impetus for new arts attendees to explore a locations
culture further. Van Melik and Van Aalst believe that “people who do not ordinarily seek out
cultural facilities can be introduced to venues they might not otherwise have visited. For
instance, some people might combine going to the festival with visiting a museum (2011, p.
197).” Outdoor Arts also leads to increased interaction amongst artists which has a positive
impact on artistic vitality within the industry. These all have a dollar multiplier effect on local

20. 19
economies which represents yet another advocacy argument for Outdoor Arts programming
(Olsen, 2013, p. 482).
Identity and Competition
Each of the festivals and events mentioned have similarities in their cultural product however
see themselves with different identities. SummerSalt has deliberately tied its branding to
that of Outdoor Arts, though many of its contemporaries offer similar experiences. White
Night capitalises on the special event aspect of its creation. It is unmatched in scale but only
available for the short period of twelve hours. A month after SummerSalt finishes Moomba
starts, focusing on the aspects of community, the cities relationship with the river as well as
“themes of pleasure, play and childhood fantasy (Alomes, 1985, p. 16).” At the same as
Moomba, in South Australia WOMADelaide is capitalising on a focused program of music
and global arts and craft. The name itself is intrinsic to its brand “World of Music, Art and
Dance.” Running parallel with all of these events, PIAF in Western Australia is capitalising
on the states newly acquired mining boom wealth to fund an unprecedented variety and
scale of arts activity (Vickery, 2015).
The fact all of these events run co-currently and that they compete with other cultural or
sporting events too, is not to be taken lightly. It demonstrates something about consumer
spending habits within the summer months. Van Aalst and Van Melik note that this isn’t an
unusual phenomenon. Summer coincides with the holidays and it is a useful period to
attract tourists (2011, p. 197). If it is true that people vote with their feet, the programming of
Outdoor Arts at festivals and events has proven to be immensely popular amongst
audiences. However with so much competition within a relatively short space of time, the
ability of new festivals and events to capture fresh arts audiences may become strained.
The capability of event organisers to balance this imperative while working within a highly
competitive environment for resources may affect the artistic merit of their program. For
Cecile Olsen this is already the case in many examples. She states “that arts festivals have
become somewhat disconnected from their original policy domain, with their current high
profile due not so much to their artistic merit, but rather to the relevance they hold for other
policy agendas like tourism and city re-imaging (2013, p. 482).” Importantly then, festivals
and Outdoor Art events must seek to find relevance with a local audience first in order to
have longevity as evidenced by a number of the case studies.
Community Ownership and Engagement
Of the five festivals and events examined PIAF, Moomba, and WOMADelaide have been
running for multiple decades at 62, 60 and 23 years respectively. SummerSalt and White

21. 20
Night are only recent additions to the Melbourne cultural landscape. This large gap between
the older and newer institutions doesn’t necessarily mean however that audiences sizes
were larger at the more established events. White Night has attracted hundreds of
thousands of people since its inception in 2013 while WOMADelaide 2015 attracted a record
attendance at only 95,000 people. Moomba runs for the same dates at WOMADelaide
however attracts a vastly higher number people. The difference of course may be due to the
difference in size of the relevant cities.
The longevity of both events may partly be due to the phenomenon which Eric Hobsbawm
labels “invented tradition.” He describes it as “a set of practices, normally governed by
overtly or tacitly accepted rules and of a ritual or symbolic nature, which seek to inculcate
certain values and norms of behaviours by repetition, which automatically implies continuity
with the past (1983, p. 1).” Hobsbawm believes that festivals and events try to connect with
a suitable historic past in order to create meaning. This is exemplified by events such as the
parade at Moomba and its links to Carnivale, or the international celebration of culture at
WOMADelaide. Invented tradition is solidified by the repeat attendances of patrons for
whom the yearly pilgrimage gradually becomes “a tradition.”
Interestingly, community participation at the events in Melbourne was strong. 77% of people
at Moomba, and 85% of people at SummerSalt were from the Melbourne metropolitan area
and a similar number would be likely for White Night. Interaction with social media may also
provide an insight into how a community engages with an Outdoor Arts event. A study
examining social media use at music festivals showed that “interacting with the brand using
social media had a direct effect on emotional attachment to the festival, and emotional
attachment has a direct effect on word of mouth (Simon Hudson, 2015, p. 74).” Of all the
five festivals and events examined, WOMADelaide had the highest number of user “check
in’s” and reviews. Despite having one of the smaller crowd sizes, WOMADelaide has a
community that is actively engaged and has ownership of its arts event. This has likely been
key to its success over many years.
Spatial Relations of Place and Atmosphere
If community support is seen as a key component of festival and event success, one must
consider the role of its location. The concept of “place” in relation to festivals and events is a
complicated one. While usually ephemeral in nature, festivals create a site of convergence
for a community outside of everyday routines, experiences and meanings. Victor Turner
believes the shared experience has the capacity to create “communitas.” He describes the
concept as a liminal (a state of flux or change) experience or

22. 21
…a ‘moment in and out of time’ and in and out of secular social structure, which
reveals, however fleetingly, some recognition (in symbol if not always in language) of a
generalized social bond that has ceased to be and has simultaneously yet to be
fragmented into a multiplicity of structural ties (2004, p. 80).
In some ways what Turner is referring to could be considered a festivals atmosphere. An in
depth examination of place is outside the scope of this report but the case studies
themselves reveal a number of interesting points. Firstly, it becomes apparent that there is a
delicate balance between over and under crowding. If too many people are within one
space then audiences will become uncomfortable, but if there is not enough people then the
event will feel empty. Each of the case studies had an individual relationship with place.
WOMADelaide’s festival site was a defined section of Botanic Park. This provided a lush
green setting for audiences and artists to come together and have a shared experience
without being overcrowded or distracted by other non-festival activities. Similarly, while
Moomba is held in close proximity to the Melbourne CBD, its setting is next to the Yarra
River and within green parklands. This too, creates a defined environment removed from
the urban metropolis of the city or suburban areas.
It is contrasted with White Night and SummerSalt’s use of place where urban streetscapes
are purposely transformed to become something different with varying degrees of success.
The objective here is that the environment itself becomes part of the art. However achieving
this has proven difficult in both examples. The size and scope of the streetscapes used
create gaps in the festival’s sense of place, where the normality of the urban regime is
allowed to seep through. This effectively means that as patrons flow from one artwork to the
next their experience is interrupted. PIAF on the other hand, deliberately operates in this
manner. Its programming is not necessarily designed to create a continuous ‘vibe’, but
instead transforms specific sites at explicit times for the purposes of the festival. The Giants
is a prime example of this. For a defined period of three days the large marionette puppets
suspended the cities belief and created a shared experience of the characters journey for
hundreds of thousands of spectators. However when The Giants had left, the city went back
to its normal operating activities even while the festival continued with other events and
locations.
In this sense, it isn’t so much that place affects audiences’ reception of the arts but that the
arts affects the reception of place. The study conducted by Van Melik and Van Aalst
revealed that “the festival’s organizers and its visitors are less convinced than the host cities
of the importance of a specific location to a festival. In their view, the destination is the
festival, not the city (2011, p. 205).” This relationship is of course symbiotic to some degree.

23. 22
However while host cities obsess over “place marketing” with festivals, it is interesting to
note that the Outdoor Art they program often feature at the event’s direct competition too.
This can be evidenced with many of the musical acts, children’s performers and Exxpolis in
the 2015 examples performing at multiple festivals within a similar period. These concepts
open up a wide ranging topic for further discussion and analysis.
Administration and Organisation
Many of the criticisms concerning the case studies were not so much directed at the arts
content but at the event organisation. This was noted particularly when patron comfort or
experience was directly affected. One disadvantage to programming Outdoor Arts is that the
infrastructure usually relied upon to deliver an optimal user experience has to be constructed
or forgone. This makes the festivals and events which program Outdoor Arts incredibly
resource heavy. It can put great strain on the organisers to find the right balance between
all the elements mentioned above in order to make audiences feel comfortable. If something
is not executed correctly the longevity of a festival or event may be at risk. A survey of 39
event managers in the United States found that possible the top causes of festival failure
were believed to be inadequate marketing or promotion, a lack of advance or strategic
planning, the weather, a lack of corporate sponsorship, and an overreliance on one source
of money (Getz, 2002, p. 212). If these issues cannot be overcome it might be an indicator
on how appropriate a festival actually is for a place or community. Getz believes that a
festival failure is not necessarily a bad thing for the host environment. He states that “in
cities, for example, the failure of one arts festival might be necessary for others to emerge
and for innovation to occur (2002, p. 218).” With the festival and event market in Australia
ever expanding, it will be interesting to see how this process of death and rebirth effects the
programming of Outdoor Arts into the future.

24. 23
Conclusion
Considering the above, there are a number of opportunities for the festival and event market
to grow their Outdoor Arts programing. This is because Outdoor Arts can be seen to make
the elite accessible. It has particular relevance to International Art Festivals. Increasing the
programming of Outdoor Arts at these events may help to grow audiences even at different
times of the year. Outdoor Arts can be seen to create an accessible hub of activity within a
defined space and time, even if the larger festival context is interspersed with different
events and locations. It creates an opportunity for the production of something novel and
tests artist’s abilities to innovate around different environments. This produces unique arts
experiences that can have a noticeable impact on their audience’s imaginations. The
accessibility of Outdoor Arts means that it can also be programmed in a variety of locations,
but its scope must be appropriate for the place in order to create an optimal user experience.
This is vital in order to foster community engagement which is paramount for event longevity.

25. 24
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