Low-cost marketing paying off for FolkFest
You won’t see any expensive, multistate advertising campaign for the AmeriServ Johnstown FolkFest.
And the modest facilities at the relatively new Festival Park don’t make the former industrial lot a regional landmark, let alone a national one.
Still, the numbers don’t lie: FolkFest visitors last year came from at least 28 states. And survey data showed that the average festival attendee had been to the Labor Day weekend event six times.
To keep the big crowds coming year after year, organizers say they rely on creative, low-cost marketing – with increasing use of the Internet.
And they believe that, in the end, it’s all about the music.
“Every year, there are people who are there just because their favorite band is there, and they’re at FolkFest for the first time,” said Ron Carnevali, festival chairman.
Locals still make up a significant and important portion of the crowd at FolkFest, which begins Friday.
And the event, falling on a holiday weekend, traditionally has served as a homecoming gathering for former Johnstowners.
But those who oversee FolkFest note that there are plenty of fresh faces each year.
“I think we are attracting new audiences, and our survey data shows that,” said Shelley Johansson, spokeswoman for Johnstown Area Heritage Association, which organizes FolkFest.
Johansson said the festival has established a media presence locally and regionally. That includes newspaper stories in the Pittsburgh area, and Carnevali said his radio interviews promoting FolkFest also have expanded into that market.
It is clear, though, that the festival’s reputation extends far beyond western Pennsylvania.
“Word of mouth plays a big role,” Johansson said.
And word of mouth spreads a lot more quickly via the Web.
“The traffic on the Web site has been increasing quite a bit in recent years,” she said. “That was a pretty significant increase over the previous year.”
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