Report: Attraction and Event Management at the EKKA Festival Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Ekka Festival, a significant annual event in Brisbane, focusing on its attraction and event management strategies. The report examines the festival's diverse attractions, including agricultural displays, entertainment, and competitions, and its impact on the local community. It explores the event's form, location, size, and the budget considerations involved in its organization. The analysis also delves into the number of participants, including visitors, competitors, and animals, and identifies the key stakeholders, both internal and external, who contribute to the festival's success. The report emphasizes the importance of effective event management principles, stakeholder engagement, and post-event actions such as feedback collection. It concludes by highlighting the role of events in the tourism and hospitality industry and the Ekka Festival's growing popularity. The report references various sources, including academic journals and online articles, to support its findings.

Running Head: ATTRACTION AND EVENT MANAGEMENT 0
ATTRACTION AND EVENT
MANAGEMENTEKKA FESTIVAL

EKKA FESTIVAL 1
Table of Contents
Type, dimension and attractions................................................................................................2
Brief analysis: Form...................................................................................................................2
Location and size........................................................................................................................2
Budget considerations................................................................................................................3
Number of participants...............................................................................................................3
Stakeholders...............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

EKKA FESTIVAL 2
Type, dimension and attractions
The Ekka Royal festival is one the major event in Brisbane. This event includes people of all
ages with its 10 days of fun. Their first show was held in August 1876, which has attracted
17,000 visitors (Uthayan, 2016). In this event, the country and city celebrate the great
lifestyle and agriculture industry. This festival also features a sideshow alley, nightly
fireworks display, and show bag pavilion. Other attractions include wood chopping
competition, animal parades and equestrian events (Familiesmagazine, 2018).
Brief analysis: Form
There are many small events that are connected to the main festival and highlight the creation
of attraction. Ekka can be classified as a signature event for the state (Burnett and Spelman,
2011). This festival gives chance for people to demonstrate newly invented agriculture
devices. This event is also organized to celebrate their work towards the land, city and region.
Location and size
Every year Ekka festival is held in the capital city of Brisbane i.e. Queensland. Each year,
this festival is held for 10 days at the Brisbane Showground in the suburb of Bowen Hills
(Moore, 2018). Brisbane Showground hosts 300 events each year with the largest being Ekka
festival (Darian-Smith, 2011). In recent years, more than 4,00,000 visitors are attending the
show and this makes it one of the most popular events of any sort. The Brisbane
Showground, where the festival held covers an area of 22 hectares (Darian-Smith, 2011).

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Budget considerations
The budget is designed in such a manner so that it can meet the satisfaction level of key
stakeholders (Yang et al, 2009). Ekka festival goods package at an affordable price so that
every year, number of visitors can be increased. It is like following – (Includes Rent,
collection of fees, printing charge, promotion and other expenses).
Promotion $9000
Rent $2000
Collection of fees $5000
Printing $1500
Others $2500
Total $20000
Number of participants
In Queensland, Ekka is one of the largest annual events with having average number of
4,00,000 visitors. Moreover, this event also welcomes 21,000 competition passes, and 10,000
animals. Moreover, 17,000 visitors attended their first show in 1876. Ekka also has a
committed list of corporate partners such as RACQ, Woolworths, Coca-Cola and many more
(William, 2018).
Stakeholders
There are some external and internal stakeholders linked with this event that play a
significant role in the accomplishment of the event (Parent, 2008). These stakeholders also
support the vision and mission of the artistic director to deliver effective annual festival
programme. A particular group also work hard to raise money from government and

EKKA FESTIVAL 4
commercial partners, to involve the supporters in programme. These stakeholders are also
connected with the various authorities and board members so that they can increase the
support in funding. The executives of events and sponsorship contact directly to the
development director of the festival so that the festival partner can be managed and
coordinate for delivering a broad range of corporate hospitality programme to gain extra
income. Therefore, the event requires a great participation of all to become a successful one.
Ekka festival has a practical element, which includes the group to plan and execute (Collins,
2018). In respect with effectively executing the event, all groups and team are prepared by
bringing several important principles and approaches in relation to event management crucial
for the event. The objective should not move from the initial stage of arrangement of the
event including approaches and practical components for functioning the course. There are
also some post event actions, which are same as important as preceding actions. Some of
these are collection of feedback, taking out various considerations, addressing the legacy, and
should be comprised in any operation element of the event (Smith and Fox, 2007). The event
management theory and approach provides information of Ekka festival, which secures the
people chance to demonstrate their newly invented device. The event also cannot give value
to the company in handling the assets of the system either manually or by the help of support
system (Getz, 2008). The success of any event is highly dependent on the satisfaction level of
the visitors (Chi and Qu, 2008), and if these expectations were not met with that expected
level, there will be a big loss to an event. However, Ekka festival has a very old origin and
this makes the directors and managers experience in handling such situations.
Conclusion
As per the previous research, it can be stated that events play major role in grabbing the
attention of the target market in respect with the tourism and hospitality industry. An
effective event will always encourage key individuals to make participate in the event. An
Ekka event is also one from those whose popularity is increasing every year for the 10 days
of the festival.

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References
Burnett, L. and Spelman, A. (2011) Creative citizenship: Building connection, knowledge,
belonging and leadership in young people. Australasian Public Libraries and Information
Services, 24(1), p.23.
Chi, C.G.Q. and Qu, H. (2008) Examining the structural relationships of destination image,
tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty: An integrated approach. Tourism
management, 29(4), pp.624-636.
Collins, M. (2018) Ekka fireworks are better than Riverfire [ONLINE] Available from:
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ekka-fireworks-are-better-than-riverfire/
news-story/b62881b50366c272d140eaa98ea8d022 [Accessed 03/12/2018].
Darian-Smith, K. (2011) Histories of agricultural shows and rural festivals in
Australia. Festival Places: Revitalising Rural Australia, 27(1), p.25.
Familiesmagazine. (2018) Redcliffe Show 2018 [ONLINE] Available from:
https://www.familiesmagazine.com.au/redcliffe-show/ [Accessed 03/12/2018].
Getz, D. (2008) Event tourism: Definition, evolution, and research. Tourism
management, 29(3), pp.403-428.
Moore, T. (2018) Not been to the Ekka in 10 years? Here's what's changed since 2008
[ONLINE] Available from: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/not-been-
to-the-ekka-in-10-years-here-s-what-s-changed-since-2008-20180814-p4zxhs.html [Accessed
03/12/2018].
Parent, M.M. (2008) Evolution and issue patterns for major-sport-event organizing
committees and their stakeholders. Journal of Sport Management, 22(2), pp.135-164.
Smith, A. and Fox, T. (2007) From'event-led'to'event-themed'regeneration: The 2002
Commonwealth Games legacy programme. Urban Studies, 44(5-6), pp.1125-1143.
Uthayan, C. (2016) A Community Based Event Management in Agricultural Products
Exhibition: The Royal Queensland Show (EKKA) Australia. Journal of Research in
Bangkok, 10(1), pp.45-50.

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Williams, P. (2018) Ekka: Everything you need to know to get the most out of the Royal
Queensland Show [ONLINE] Available from:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-10/ekka-explainer-what-you-need-to-know-royal-
queensland-show/10090736 [Accessed 03/12/2018].
Yang, J., Shen, G.Q., Ho, M., Drew, D.S. and Chan, A.P. (2009) Exploring critical success
factors for stakeholder management in construction projects. Journal of civil engineering and
management, 15(4), pp.337-348.