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?