1. Event Overview
The River of Art Festival is an annual, artist-led regional arts festival delivered across the Eurobodalla Shire and extending into Shoalhaven and Bega Shire, on the NSW South Coast. Running for 21 years, the Festival showcases professional and emerging artists through exhibitions, Open Studios, workshops, performances and community events, while supporting cultural tourism and regional economic activity.
The 2025 Festival was delivered over 11 days and included:
Over 15,300 visits
More than 100 programmed events
Participation by more than 400 artists
Events delivered across multiple towns and venues from Durras to Bermagui
Destination NSW funding (despite the late notice), enabled River of Art to rapidly deliver an impressive marketing, media and communications campaign in the critical lead-up to the Festival, significantly expanding reach beyond the Festival’s in-house campaign.
2. Ticketing and Attendance Data
Ticketing
The majority of River of Art Festival events are free, in keeping with the Festival’s commitment to accessibility and community participation. Ticketing was required for a small number of workshops and performances, with tickets sold directly by event hosts or venues.
Due to the distributed, multi-venue nature of the Festival, there is no single centralised ticketing platform. Instead, attendance data is collected through a combination of:
- Manual tally sheets completed by participating venues and artists, and
- Visitation and spend data derived from a range of sources, including DNSW (Comm bank data) provided by DSNSW, Spendmapp data provided by the Council, and a Localis event report directly commissioned by River of Art Inc.
Attendance
Based on returned event tally sheets, the Festival recorded an estimated 15,335 visits across programmed events during the Festival period.
Key attendance observations include:
- Peak daily visitation of approximately 580 visits on Saturday 27 September, with a second peak of over 550 visits the following Saturday
- Strong and consistent attendance across exhibitions and Open Studios throughout the 11-day period
- Significant participation in major anchor events including the Festival Launch, Art Prize Exhibition, both in Moruya and the Sculpture @ the Clubhouse exhibition in Narooma.
This is the first year we can show attendance figures (reported above) that reflect direct engagement with Festival events, rather than total regional visitation.
3. Economic and Tourism Context
While broader regional mobility and spend data reflects all activity occurring during the Festival period, River of Art also undertook its first calculation of a directly attributable Festival contribution using tally sheet attendance data.
Based on the estimated 15,335 Festival visits, the Festival calculated a directly attributable total spend of approximately $6.2 million, encompassing resident, day-visitor and tourist expenditure.
In addition, Destination Southern NSW data indicates that during the Festival period:
- Total spend in the region was $27.3 million (4.1% increase on the previous year)
- Visitor (non-resident) spend was $10 million (9.4% increase year-on-year)
- Average Length of Stay was 5.2 nights, up 26% on the 2025 average.
These broader figures provide important context for understanding the environment in which the Festival was delivered, while the $6.2 million estimate represents the Festival’s first evidence-based calculation of direct economic contribution
4. Marketing, Media and Communications Outcomes
(Destination NSW funded activity)
Despite the very late notice of success, Destination NSW funding enabled the rapid deployment of a marketing and media campaign in the lead-up to, and during the Festival.
The campaign included:
- Paid digital advertising (Meta platforms)
- Strategically placed digital display and billboard advertising
- Print advertising
- Social media campaign delivery
Campaign Results
Across all channels, the campaign achieved:
- Over 1 million campaign views
- 650,000+ paid Meta views
- 346,000+ digital display and billboard views
- 250,000+ individuals reached
- 4,100+ social interactions
- 3,900+ link clicks
The campaign extended visibility across:
- Canberra
- Sydney
- Interstate audiences, and
- Eurobodalla and surrounding NSW regions
Earned Media
Paid advertising placements unlocked significant earned media outcomes, including:
- A double-page editorial feature in Moruya Mail
- Multiple interviews and an extended “Where to go this weekend” segment on ABC South East NSW
- Community radio promotion via 2EAR FM
- Additional unpaid amplification via platforms including The Fold and regional social media channels
Social media content included both whole-of-Festival promotion and featured event segments, as well as a “Plan Your Stay” campaign promoting accommodation and
5. Acknowledgement of NSW Government Support
The River of Art Festival formally acknowledged the financial support of the NSW Government and Destination NSW through:
- Inclusion of Destination NSW logos on Festival marketing materials and digital assets
- Acknowledgement in paid advertising and social media content
- Verbal acknowledgement at the official Festival Launch
- Acknowledgement in media releases and interviews
- Inclusion in Festival reports and documentation
Destination NSW support was also acknowledged publicly as enabling the scale and reach of the 2025 marketing and media campaign.
6. Accommodation and Experience Partnerships
River of Art worked proactively and expeditiously to develop linkages with accommodation and experience partners to support extended stays and strengthen the Festival’s contribution to regional tourism outcomes.
While funding timelines limited the ability to fully recruit and activate packaged bookings for the 2025 Festival, River of Art successfully engaged a number of accommodation and experience partners who featured prominently in Festival advertising and promotional activity.
Accommodation partners promoted through the campaign included Mystery Bay Cottages, Abode Malua Bay, Hive Motel Moruya, and Whale Coast Realty. Experience partners included Mogo Zoo, Region X kayaking and hiking tours, and Southbound Escapes Bike Hire.
These partners were integrated into the marketing campaign through social media content and paid advertising. Campaign advertisements also included a QR code linking audiences directly to partner offers, as well as to the Eurobodalla tourism directory
This approach ensured visitors had access not only to Festival-related experiences, but also to a broader range of accommodation and tourism options across the region.
Partnerships between tourism providers and event organisers represent an important strategic opportunity, particularly for regional events. Strong goodwill was evident among participating businesses, and the 2025 Festival provided a valuable foundation for more coordinated package development and earlier activation in the lead-up to the 2026 Festival.
7. Website Upgrades and Visitor Experience
Visitor feedback collected during the Festival, together with insights from a recent tourism forum held in the Eurobodalla, highlighted the importance of websites that actively support visitor planning rather than create barriers to engagement.
In response, River of Art has prioritised website upgrades focused on improving the visitor experience in two key areas. The first is enhanced “plan your visit” functionality for Festival programming, enabling visitors to more easily explore events, locations and dates across the 11-day Festival period. The second is improving the website’s capacity to support planning and booking of accommodation and experience activities alongside Festival attendance.
These upgrades are intended to reduce visitor friction, support longer stays, and better align the Festival’s digital presence with contemporary visitor expectations. The 2025 Festival highlighted the value of integrating program information with tourism and booking
8. Final Financial Report
A final financial report, including:
· total expenditure
· total revenue
· and a reconciliation showing how the Destination NSW Funding Amount was expended is provided as Appendix A to this report.
This financial report demonstrates that Destination NSW funds were expended in accordance with the Funding Agreement, primarily supporting marketing, media and communications activities associated with the delivery of the 2025 Festival.
9. Conclusion
The 2025 River of Art Festival was successfully delivered and achieved strong outcomes in attendance, audience engagement, regional visibility and economic contribution. Destination NSW funding played a critical role in enabling a timely and effective marketing and media campaign, significantly extending the Festival’s reach into key intrastate and interstate markets.
River of Art Inc thanks Destination NSW for its support and looks forward to continued partnership in strengthening the Festival’s contribution to cultural tourism and economic growth in regional NSW.
