Musikfest Expects to Break Even This Year

About 920,000 people attended Musikfest 2012 during its 10 days, a 7 percent increase over the 2011 festival when ArtsQuest lost $750,000, according to published reports.

The financial picture is still an estimate, but ArtsQuest is expecting to break even on the 29th annual festival, organization President Jeff Parks said in a statement issued to local media.

That’s a far cry from a year ago, when Parks made after days of of two venues marred the festival’s final weekend. Attendance sagged to 860,000.

Over the past decade, the festival has typically attracted about 1 million visitors.

Ticket sales at paid venues dropped from 54,700 tickets in 2011 to 48,000 this year, The Express-Times reported. However, this year ArtsQuest did not charge admission to shows in the Musikfest Café in the .

The Morning Call reported that 17,000 people downloaded the iPhone Musikfest App, which offered interactive information on the festival to users.

The newspaper also reported that 1,780 volunteers from 11 states and 23 countries – from as far away as Brazil and Pakistan – helped to run the festival.