Feile was worth €5.4m to Tipperary economy

As 2020 and the 30th Anniversary of the first ever Feile in Thurles looms, CWB the promoters behind the return of the iconic concerts to Tipperary have announced some great statistics on this year's festival.

The 2019 edition of the festival, which saw music icons like Sinead O’Connor and Thin Lizzy line out alongside 90’s stars such as Sultans of Ping, EMF, Therapy? and many more, was held over two nights in mid-September and the customer satisfaction survey was carried out by market research company Obsidan on behalf of the promoters.

Here are some of the headline figures from this year’s Feile.

- Over 60% of the audience travelled from outside of the Midwest (Tipperary, Limerick , Clare, Laois, Offaly, Carlow) .

-Over 75% of the audience hadn’t been to Thurles since the last time they were at Feile.

- 60% of them stayed over night in hotel, B&B, Air Bn’b, camping of glamping.

- 70% thought the line up was better than 2018.

- 80% liked Fridays line up better than Saturdays.

- 82% thought the Festival was good value.

- 78% rated the food as outstanding.

- 65% were in Thurles for a meal or a drink before the show.

- 50% thought the prices in Thurles inflated for the weekend (hotels and pubs).

- 90% would go to Feile 2020 but the lack of accomadation would be a large factor.

Based on the BNP/ Ticketmaster multiplier, Feile 19 was worth €5.4 million to the Tipperary economy.

Joe Clarke on behalf of CWB said on the survey results “It’s great to hear people had such a great time at Feile 19, it was a challenging year for the festival with over 250,000 extra outoor tickets on sale in Munster compared to the previous year but with the support of the artists and our partners, we delivered two great days of music and we are certainly considering doing something in the right location to mark thirty years of feile in 2020”.