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Three quarters of people expect to spend less on paid-for entertainment in the coming year due to cost-of-living concerns.
The Audience Agency’s latest Cultural Participation Monitor figures show that 74% of the public agreed that they expect to do fewer paid-for entertainment and leisure activities over the next year, with 35% strongly agreeing.
Some 68% of respondents said the ‘cost of living crisis’ means they expect to look for more free entertainment and leisure activities over the next year. Some 73% said they expect to stay closer to home for entertainment and leisure activities over the next year.
The latest findings focus on attitudes to cost-of-living and audiences’ willingness to attend.
Willingness to attend events has continued to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than half (52%) saying that they are ‘willing to attend’, and 75% saying they ‘are happy to attend’ or ‘would consider attending with reservations’.
However, most people expect to attend art forms less in future than they did before the pandemic. This includes going to the cinema at 11% compared to 34% and live performances at 11% compared to 28%.
Anne Torreggiani, chief executive of The Audience Agency said: “These newest findings confirm the growing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on our sector. It’s shocking to find out that three quarters of the population are predicting that they will have less to spend on arts and culture.
“Keeping abreast of people’s changing priorities and habits are going to play a vital part in the sector’s resilience. We’re here to do that, to help organisations anticipate where the pressure points will be, to offer practical support in navigating them, to suggest how we can help our communities through the crisis.
“We’ll be returning to this topic in our next wave of the Cultural Participation Monitor, continuing to empower cultural organisations with relevant, high-quality, independent insight.”
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