Study: Delaware's Firefly Musical Festival Responsible For $68 Million Boost To Local Economy
DOVER, Del. (CBS) – Delaware's Firefly Music Festival is doing more than simply providing great music to thousands of concert-goers.
It also contributed more than $68 million to the area's economy and created nearly 600 full-time jobs in 2014.
The information was taken from a study released on Dec. 3rd and conducted by the Center for Applied Business and Economic Research, part of the University of Delaware.
Officials say 900 festival attendees were interviewed about purchases from the event's on-site vendors as well as off-site businesses on the way to the festival and in Dover. Five-thousand more people responded to an online survey.
Del. officials say Firefly festival-goers spend about $850 on average. About 80,000 people attended the 2014 festival, which is up from the first year, 2012, when about 30,000 attended.
"Bringing an event like Firefly to Delaware, of course, helps put our state on the map in the music world," says Mike Tatoian, chief operating officer of Dover Motorsports, Inc; on the Delaware State website. "But the economic numbers this study has yielded prove that the festival's reach goes far beyond just the entertainment business."
Firefly 2015 is scheduled for June 18-21.
For more information on the festival, visit: www.fireflyfestival.com.
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