Summer Festival Mania

Chris Pasles writes in the July 9 Los Angeles Times about the rapidly growing summer music festival phenomenon:

The classical music summer, in short, is hot.

Exact figures are hard to come by, but in the last five years alone, summer festivals and workshops in America have doubled, from about 100 in 2001 to more than 200 this year, according to Chamber Music America, a national service organization.

There are some fascinating views into the summer lives of performing artists, and interviews include pianists Jon Kimura Parker and Anton Nel.

It's good to see some press on this rapidly expanding staple of the classical music season. What Chris Pasles neglects to mention is the importance of the business that these festivals bring into the communities that house them and what the rapidly growing arts sector can bring to these communities.

Link to article

Link to a previous post on Hill Strategies Research's findings of higher than normal growth rates of the arts sector in Canadian cities.

Question for readers: Do any of you know of statistics that exist on the size and growth rates of the arts industry in the US?