CSPA Sustainability Survey: Fusebox Festival

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts partnered with the Fusebox Festival for their 2012 program to creatively evaluate and explore both the environmental and cultural impacts of producing a festival. The project involved members of the festival’s community, including the festival’s directors, audience members, visiting artists, and staff. Data was gathered primarily to produce a dynamic data visualization to be accessible online and in tangible form at the festival hub.

Through surveys, direct observation, and box office data, we set out to examine the relationship between festival activities, cultural interest and infrastructure, and hints of economic effects of the festival. In short, we were interested in the idea of ‘cultural off-setting.’ Is producing an inter/national arts festival locally beneficial, both culturally and economically? And, what are the costs to the environment to produce such a festival?