Luminate, Scotland’s creative ageing festival, takes place across Scotland each October. The festival brings older people and people from across the generations together to celebrate our creativity as we age, share stories of ageing and explore what growing older means to all of us.

Culture Republic worked with Luminate to learn about its audiences and their experiences at the festival. To do this, we designed, distributed and analysed an e-survey. It looked at where audiences were from and their demographic profile. The survey asked how much they enjoyed the event and their experience of Luminate. Finally, it asked people how they heard about the festival and why they went.

The research shows a varied audience, with an even split across the geography and demographic of respondents. The majority of attendees are from older age groups, which fits with the intended messaging of the festival. Interestingly though, 20% were under 45. Some of these people would have been attending with those in older age groups but the figure also demonstrates the wider appeal of the festival. There were some key differences between older and younger audiences:

• The festival and its brand are a key motivation for attendance for older audiences, whereas younger audiences are more attracted by specific events and the programme itself.
• Factors affecting attendance also varied slightly by age group. Price for example is significantly more important for those aged under 55 than those 55+. Transport links, on the other hand, are more important for older age groups.
• Older audiences tended to find out about the festival via word of mouth or from the Luminate brochure. Younger attendees, however, were less likely to have heard about the festival directly from Luminate marketing materials. They would generally access the festival via other means, such as What’s On Guides.

The findings also show that customer satisfaction was very high across the board and the vast majority said they would recommend it to a friend. When asked what the single best thing about the festival was, survey respondents praised the events and the people involved:

“Encouraging creativity in all walks of life. Inspiring.”

“Involvement with local community (elderly members)”

“I have enjoyed everything about it. I’ve never tried this before but I found it most enjoyable and would definitely look forward to attending again and bring friends.”

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