Great Exhibition Road Festival 2019 Evaluation

Background:

The Great Exhibition Road Festival (GERF) 2019 takes Imperial College’s annual festival and partners with 21 leading institutions, museums, and organisations in the area of South Kensington known as Albertopolis. The festival invokes the spirit of the first Great Exhibition in 1851 and fuses art, science, technology and curiosity.

GERF is an extension of Imperial College’s annual festival and takes place along the length of Exhibition Road, in addition to the Imperial campus and partner hosts such as the museums and the Royal Albert Hall. The involvement of the partner institutions has broadened the festival scope to encompass more arts and culture alongside STEM focussed activity.

Our Approach

Our evaluation of the first Great Exhibition Road Festival aimed to understand the value of extending the offer beyond Imperial alone. It explored the festival’s audience, their needs, and the festival’s impacts upon them, as well as the views of volunteers and participants.

We employed a mixed methods approach to explore different elements of the festival. This included both paper and online surveys, interviews, and the creation of tactile interactive evaluation tools.

outputs

A final report including recommendations for the development of GERF, discussed in a round up meeting with the festival team, as well as development of a range of evaluative tools for use at future festivals.