The performing arts offering in Barcelona continued to follow the downward trend that began in 2011 but the number of spectators grew a timid 2% over 2015.

In recent years the performing arts field in Barcelona has been progressively reducing its offering of productions, performances and seats, while its spectator figures have slowly begun to recover. With respect to 2014, for example, in 2016 there was a loss of 624 performances (over 425,000 seats) while, on the other hand, ticket sales have increased by 15,536.

In the face of these data, a number of questions arise such as: was there an excess in the offering in past years? Should the offering be reduced even more, devoting greater efforts to policies addressed to drawing new spectators? Or, on the contrary, should a larger and more diversified offering be promoted with a view to drawing to the theatre the population sectors who do not feel attracted by the present offering? Does the city of Barcelona have a ceiling of performing arts spectators?

These questions obviously do not have one sole answer and they should be approached from beyond the analysis of the available data.

Yet even so, the data always challenge us to interpret them.

Would you like to take a try at it?

Performing arts data 2009-2016

Between 22 and 25 September Barcelona celebrated its annual city festival. In 2016, the feast of Saint Mercè fell on a Saturday which meant the festival would be short and condensed and that most activities would be held over the weekend.

A noteworthy feature of this year’s festival was the diversification of venues, with the inclusion of new stages in neighbourhoods that hadn’t previously hosted activities.

In the case of the Mercè Arts de Carrer Festival (street arts festival), activities spread to Trinitat Park, Fabra i Coats, Fàbrica DAMM and the CCCB.

If you require more information on visitors and crowd counting systems during the festival, please see the Attendance Report for La Mercè 2016.

On the homepage of this website you have available the report Cultural indicators for Barcelona 2015, a summary of the most important cultural events in the city in these areas:

• Museums and exhibition spaces
• Archives and heritage libraries
• Performing arts spaces
• Concert spaces
• Cinemas
• Art Factories
• Barcelona libraries
• Civic centres
• Cultural festivals
• City festivals
• Grants / Transfers

You have also available the reports of previous years.

The Observatori de Dades Culturals de Barcelona (Barcelona Cultural Data Observatory) presents a report outlining the basis for a proposed qualitative assessment of the Art Factories network.

Our focus, until now, has been on quantitative indicators, although we’ve always been fully aware that quantitative information is inadequate to explain what an art factory is in all its complexity. The qualitative assessment will allow us to provide a better picture of the role these facilities play in the sphere of creation.

In order to design a procedure capable of qualitatively assessing, in a sufficiently competent manner, the work of the factories, a preliminary definition task was carried out to gather the experiences of each of the factories, based on interviews of the managers in charge.

The main goals of the interviews were to:

• Detect the core values that can serve to qualitatively assess the facilities.
• Design a plan that pinpoints which practices can guarantee these values.
• Suggest the lowest common denominator that explains what art factories are and what they do.

The report that ensued from this process (only available in Catalan) is the first step towards a qualitative assessment of the Art Factories network.

For the past five years the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (ICUB, Culture Institute of Barcelona) has conducted a survey of visitors to the city’s museums with the purpose of discovering the profile of people drawn to these facilities.

In the 2015 survey, three additional museums were included whereas surveys of the Picasso Museum were temporarily suspended. In all, thirteen of the city’s museum facilities participated.

The overall results of the survey indicate:

PLACE OF ORIGIN:

• The vast majority of visitors to Barcelona’s museums live abroad, especially in European countries, while only 17% are Barcelona residents.
  • Fundació Joan Miró, Montjuïc Castle and the MUHBA in Plaça del Rei are the facilities that attract the highest proportion of foreign visitors.
  • Museu Blau and Museu del Disseny are the museums with the highest proportion of visitors from Barcelona.
  • The CCCB and Born CCM are the museums with the highest number of visitors from other parts of Catalonia.

LOYALTY:

• Over 80% of people are first-time visitors (except at the CCCB where 50% of people have visited on a previous occasion).
• Among visitors who are either from Barcelona or other parts of Catalonia, 41% have visited more than once.

 SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

• Given that the vast majority of visitors are from abroad, it is clear that tourist information sources are largely responsible for the promotion of the city’s museums.
• By contrast, communication media, advertising, personal recommendations and prior visits to a museum are the sources most frequently cited by visitors from Barcelona or other parts of Catalonia.

The full report with the results of the 2015 survey is available for consultation (only available in Catalan).

A Grec Festival survey to analyse such aspects as the rating spectators give the Festival or the degree of audience loyalty.

This is the 9th edition of a study that began in 1989 and has gradually incorporated new objectives over time. The last three editions (2007, 2011 and 2015) are the most comparable and the most suitable for an analysis of the evolution of results.

According to the overall results of the survey:

ASSESSMENT:

The average rating for the Festival as a whole is 7.7.

Aspects that achieve the highest rating are:

• 4: venues where shows are held
• 3: show just seen

Aspects that achieve the lowest rating are:

• 5: discounts
• 4: Festival ticket prices

All aspects that have been assessed have received a higher rating than previous editions.

LOYALTY:

On average, spectators intend to attend 3.4 shows during the Festival.

63% of spectators went to the 2014 Grec (nearly 2 out of 3).

56.6% say they attend the Festival every year.

• Dance audiences are the most loyal: 7% say they attend every year.

21% of audiences are new (it is their first time at the Festival).

• Concerts and family shows draw most new audiences (27%).

CULTURAL HABITS OF AUDIENCES:

95% of Festival audiences have gone at least once during the year to a theatre, dance or music show.

• 5% four times a year or more
• 5% two or three times
• 5% once a year

PROFILE OF AUDIENCES:

• 70% are university-educated
• Average age is 5 years
• 59% of audiences are women

See the full report detailing the results of the 2015 survey (document only available in Catalan).