SALISBURY – A study of this year’s National Folk Festival revealed the event had a total economic impact of more than $45 million.
In an overview with the Wicomico County Council last week, Salisbury Mayor Jake Day reported the 79th annual National Folk Festival attracted more than 153,000 attendees to the downtown area and generated more than $45 million in total economic impact.
“That’s a good weekend in our community,” he said.
The study – conducted by the Business, Economic and Community Outreach Network (BEACON) at Salisbury University’s Franklin P. Perdue School of Business – is still being finalized, but Day told the council last week that attendance, donations and the estimated economic impact more than doubled from last year’s inaugural event.
“I’m not anticipating that we are going to become Ocean City and be a tourist-driven economy, that’s not us …,” he said. “But I’m proud that we can create something that’s good for our community, good for our economy and will be for a long time to come.”
The 79th Annual National Folk Festival returned for the second year of a three-year residency in downtown Salisbury from Sept. 6-8. The festival – a free, outdoor event produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts – celebrates arts, culture and heritage through live performances, workshops, demonstrations, children’s activities and more.
While the first year of the festival attracted roughly 60,000 people and generated $20 million in total economic impact, local manager Caroline O’Hare said nice weather and awareness had contributed to a larger turnout this year.
“As we all know, we had much better weather and the crowds were considerably larger …,” she said. “As you can see, all three days had a substantial amount of people. Again, we believe this will grow in the third year even more.”
Officials noted the size of the crowd also contributed to larger donations. This year, the Bucket Brigade – which seeks contributions from the crowd to ensure the festival remains free for all attendees – collected more than $40,000.
“There’s no barrier to entry,” Day said. “Anyone from our community and any visitor can attend and chooses to give back to make sure this festival continues, remains free and stays alive.”
Day told the council it cost $1.1 million to produce the National Folk Festival. Roughly two-thirds of the funding came from state grants and sponsorships, while the remaining funds came from local municipalities and revenues generated from beer and wine sales, merchandise sales, vendor fees and donations.
Officials also recognized the volunteers and partnerships for making the National Folk Festival possible.
“This is truly a team effort because it has to be,” Day said. “It’s a sizable effort to pull off.”
O’Hare noted that National Folk Festival content reached nearly 20 million people on Facebook between Aug. 28 and Sept. 24. Day added that marketing also benefitted local businesses.
“Angello’s, which was open for its first weekend, sold 2,200 ice cream cones and 2,200 bowls of ice cream …,” he said. “Mayabella’s had a great weekend and Roadie Joe’s had a record weekend and a single-day sales record on Saturday.”
Councilman Bill McCain noted the National Folk Festival attracted a diverse group of performers and attendees.
“It’s a great event for our community,” he said, “and kudos to you all for pulling it off for another year.”
Council President John Cannon said the National Folk Festival was a great example of local activities available to the public.
“That’s what the corporations want to see,” he said. “When they bring families here, when they make a decision to bring a company here, their first question, outside of schools, is ‘What is there to do?’ And you just answered that question …”
O’Hare agreed.
“Our community is coming out and saying ‘We want visitors here, we want people here,’” she said, “and it’s an exciting time to be a part of this community.”
Organizers are already busy preparing for the city’s third National Folk Festival, which is scheduled to take place downtown from Sept. 11-13 of next year.
When the three-year run is over, the National Folk Festival moves on to its next city, but a local legacy festival featuring the same types of events and activities remains in place.
“As long as the community wants it, this will keep going,” Day said.
