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Five Million Euros Spent by Visitors at Major Concerts of Tartu 2024 programme at the Tartu Song Festival Grounds

Six major concerts took place this summer at the Tartu Song Festival Grounds as part of the Tartu 2024 programme. The nearly 50 000 people who visited these events rated them highly and spent over five million euros altogether to partake in them, revealed the completed report.

World-famous jazz star Jacob Collier made the public become a choir at the Tartu Song Festival Grounds. Photo: Silver Gutmann
24. Oct 2024

According to Kuldar Leis, the CEO of Tartu 2024, the concerts which belonged to the Tartu 2024 programme and took place at the Tartu Song Festival Grounds were a huge success. “The public rated these events highly with an average of 8,9–9,4 points out of 10,” said Leis.

According to Leis, it is economically relevant that the biggest portion of the people that visited these concerts came from outside of Tartu and Southern Estonia. The main portion was from Northern Estonia, making up about 40 per cent of the public. In addition, every tenth ticket buyer was from abroad.

“These major concerts gave thousands of people a reason for visiting Tartu,” said Leis. “After a recent renovation, the Tartu Song Festival Grounds has come to life again and the big demand for concerts gives organisers assurance to bring more international stars to Tartu.”

The 48 500 people who visited the concerts spent approximately five million euros altogether. This means that the Estonian government will see additional tax revenue of 1,1 million euros. The rest of the revenue is distributed between the different companies and thus reaches their employees and downstream suppliers and service providers.

The report, compiled with the leadership of Tartu 2024, is based on data collected from audiences, concert organisers and ticketing websites. It looked at visitor spending on tickets, transport, accommodation, catering and much more. For example, where did the visitors come from and the perception of green practices in event organisation.

One of the editors of the report, Annika Jalak, the Social Studies Manager at Tartu 2024, pointed out that the viewers who filled in the feedback questionnaire also gave a lot of free responses. “Additional opinions and suggestions were shared by 1600 respondents. This data can be used to further develop experiences, services and infrastructure, communication and marketing in Tartu and Southern Estonia,” said Jalak.

According to Jalak, much the same survey is carried out after many ECOC events. In this way, a comprehensive overview of the audience and attendance experiences of cultural events in Tartu and Southern Estonia will be obtained.

Sting, Jacob Collier and Take 6 performed at the Tartu Song Festival in June and July 2024 as part of the main programme of the European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024. The Tartu Song Festival, Genialistid, Bryan Adams, and Hauser performed as part of the Tartu 2024 additional programme.