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============PRESS
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NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
MERLEFEST
2004
Releases Economic Impact Report
WILKESBORO, NC: MerleFest 2004,
the 17th
annual festival in celebration of the music of the late Merle Watson and his
father Doc Watson presented on April 29 May 2 by Wilkes Community College on
its campus in Wilkesboro, NC exerted a tremendous impact upon the regional
economy while earning almost one-half million dollars for the college. Using
guidelines recommended by the College of Business at Appalachian State
University, the total regional economic impact of MerleFest 2004 is estimated at
$13,749,915, exceeding 2003’s $12,286,799 by nearly $1.5 million. The direct
economic impact on Wilkes County alone from the festival is estimated at $7.3
million, $800,000 more than last year, according to the MerleFest 2004
Economic Impact Report, released on August 12. This figure includes money
spent by tourists attending the festival, ticket sales, festival local
expenditures and donations to service organizations.
Wilkes Community College will present MerleFest 2005 on April 28 May 1, 2005.
Ticket sales to the general public for MerleFest 2005 will begin at 2:00 PM
Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 9, 2004 via 1-800-343-7857 or
www.merlefest.org.
Paid attendance at this year's MerleFest totaled 40,840, far more than 2002’s
record 36,714. Overall festival participation, including ticketed participants,
artists, volunteers, 3200 school children admitted free on Friday, and 12,000
attending 38 community outreach concerts, totaled a record high 81,592 for
MerleFest 2004.
Some fifty non-profit civic and college organizations earned $348,541 in
net revenue, $40,000 more than 2003, on gross receipts of $543,511 through their
participation in this year's festival. Both numbers represent record highs.
These figures represent a significant source of funding for the many important
projects sponsored by the community organizations, while fulfilling the
festival’s mission to exert a positive economic impact on Wilkes County. Proceeds from MerleFest, meanwhile, have permitted the
college to make numerous capital improvements, including the Eddy Merle Watson
Memorial Garden for the Senses, the Doc & Merle Watson Theatre, fiber-optic
wiring for the campus, and the endowment of scholarships for its students. These
funds supplement the college's state and local budget. Total MerleFest 2004
gross revenue exceeded $2.57 million, a 14% increase over 2003. This year, funds
generated by the festival will enable Wilkes Community College to contribute
$480,000 toward scholarships, salaries, program enhancements and capital
improvements. Over its 17-year history, MerleFest has contributed almost $4.9
million to the college. At MerleFest 2004, 3,388 volunteers contributed some
40,552 hours.
MerleFest 2004 offered food, crafts, dance, family and
children’s’ activities, and 280 performances by more than 90 Americana music
acts, including Doc Watson and Merle’s son Richard, Vince Gill, Earl Scruggs,
Donna the Buffalo, Patty Loveless, Nickel Creek, Sam Bush Band, Béla Fleck &
Edgar Meyer, Rosanne Cash, the Indigo Girls, Gillian Welch, Hot Tuna, Indigo
Girls, Savoy Doucet Cajun Band, and Natalie MacMaster. Surprise appearances by
Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones with the John Cowan Band delighted the
audience.
MerleFest 2004 commanded the attention of the roots music media, including
direct promotion from more than 80 radio stations, mostly in the eastern USA.
MerleFest enjoys media partnerships with the major publications and web sites in
our field, with regional cable, and with XM Satellite Radio that brought
MerleFest 2002, 2003, and 2004 live to its subscribers, as campus station WSIF-FM
did to its listeners in Wilkes County. MerleFest staff tracked more than 640
articles printed about MerleFest 2004 in publications whose aggregate
circulations exceed 29,000,000. A crew from CNN’s “Aaron Brown Show” spent two
days at MerleFest 2004 for an episode aired in late May 2004. Triad TV stations
WFMY-2, WGHP-8, and WXII-12 broadcast from MerleFest 2004, as did Bristol, VA’s
WCBY-5. BBC Radio-Scotland and Japan’s Moonshiner magazine had
representatives conducting interviews on site. Public television system UNC-TV
rewarded pledges with 300 MerleFest 2004 tickets. Eighty-nine radio stations in
16 states and Canada participated in MerleFest 2004 promotions, giving away
$54,900 worth of tickets to their listeners. Including media sponsorships with
that total, MerleFest 2004 bartered for $134,682 worth of radio airtime,
magazine, website, newspaper, and cable TV advertising. XM Satellite Radio again
broadcast live from MerleFest.
MerleFest 2004 benefited from partnerships with 94 sponsors, including major
sponsors: Charter Communications, Tyson Foods, Gibson Musical Instruments,
Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouses, Curtis Media, the Winston-Salem Journal,
Pepsi, Burger King, Hardees/Dermox, iBluegrass & the Acoustic Network, G&B
Energy/C&J LP Gas, JBL, REDGUM Audio, J D’Addario, Fishman Transducers, Sugar
Hill Records, AC Phelps Mandolin & Guitar Co., WNCW Public Radio, John Pearse
Strings, The Musik Room, Stelling Banjo Works, Taylor Guitars, Collings Guitars,
Huss & Dalton Musical Instruments, Western Beat Entertainment, Fender Musical
Instruments, Sprint, Cedar Creek Custom Case Shoppe, WUNC Public Radio, Chetola
Resort at Blowing Rock, Deering Banjo Company, and Homespun Tapes. Sponsorship
support reached a record $423,289, including both cash and in-kind
contributions.
merlefest@wilkescc.edu ,
or
www.merlefest.org
Media information:
Print: Traci Thomas
(traci@newwestrecords.com ;
310-246-5766);
Non-print: Art Menius
(artmenius@mindspring.com ;
919-542-3997, Fax: 240-250-7229).
MerleFest 2005 media credentials should be requested by March 25, 2005.
Art Menius
Partnership and National Marketing Coordinator, MerleFest
2069 Andrews Store Rd
Pittsboro, NC 27312
919-542-3997
Fax: 240-250-7229
www.merlefest.org
www.mindspring.com/~artmenius/
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