One of Ireland’s favourite food festivals, Savour Kilkenny marks the end of autumn in the stunning setting of Kilkenny’s Medieval city. Taking place over the October bank holiday weekend each year, the event celebrates the produce, food and culture of Kilkenny and the surrounding rich pasturelands.

In 2024 Market Dynamics was commissioned to undertake a survey of attendees at the event. We selected a methodology that we have successfully deployed at many festivals over the years.

• Market Dynamics’ worked with the Savour Kilkenny team to design a questionnaire for use in the project.
• Our field research team approached attendees at the event over the duration of the event and requested they provide their email address so they could be sent a post-event online survey. Circa 700 email addresses were collected. Targets were assured that the email addresses will only be used for this purpose.
• All respondents were included in a prize draw.
• In the days following the event the survey link was emailed to participants. In addition, the survey link was featured in social media posts.

A total of 570 respondents participated in the survey. The data provided an enormous amount of detail on the age and gender of attendees, geographic spread, travel and  accommodation  profile and the split of solos, couples and family groups. This allowed a comprehensive attendee profile to be drawn up.

The organisers gained insight into what days and times people attended, what features of the festival were most popular and how much people spent during their visit. Finally, use of the online survey methodology meant that respondents were able to take time to make suggestions and provide new ideas for the festival as well quotes to be used for PR / marketing purposes.