Patternmakers 17/1/24 Patternmakers 17/1/24

From stadium gigs to screen-time: Looking back at the top audience moments of 2023

What changed for Australian audiences in 2025?

In this article, we cast our mind back to the sell-out stadiums, packed movie theatres, and record-breaking festivals of 2023, to bring you the biggest moments shared by Australian audiences.

We cast our mind back to the sell-out stadiums, packed movie theatres, and record-breaking festivals of 2023, to bring you the biggest moments shared by Australian audiences.

As 2023 was nearing its close, our team got chatting about the top audience moments of the year — and what we learned along the way.

It seems obvious but it’s actually pretty special: many of us have loved being in crowds again. After the awkwardness and isolation of the pandemic, 2023 was about having that collective experience: the feeling of being 100% in the moment alongside thousands of other people.

In this article, we take a look back at a year marked by sell-out stadium performances, shock cancellations, packed movie theatres, and record-breaking festivals.

The Matildas didn’t win the World Cup but, instead, changed women’s sport for good

The Matildas drew in record-breaking viewership for their incredible run at the Women’s World Cup - capturing the hearts of audiences around the globe but especially here at home.

Our team has some insight into the complex funding decisions behind major events (hint: they ain’t cheap), but this one set a new precedent for the enormous intangible value that results from hosting global events like the World Cup.

Cost-benefit ratios aside, the iconic semi-finals shootout cemented Sam Kerr’s legendary status, and the Matildas keen following saw the team become Australia’s most valuable brand in sports. The start of a new chapter, not just for women in sport, but for Australian society, period.

Barbenheimer brought us back to the cinema, on the double!

Perhaps the biggest comeback in 2023 saw audiences returning to the big screen in swathes, driven by Barbie and Oppenheimer’s competing release dates (as well as an unprecedented marketing effort and press tour by Warner Bros.).

Like other kinds of cultural events, cinema attendances took a big hit during the pandemic, but things began looking a lot rosier as these two films approached our shores.

Fuelled by the viral ‘Barbenheimer’ meme, a new phenomenon emerged, leading audiences across the globe to purchase tickets to both films as a double feature. This unlikely combo showed that, when done right, audiences are up for both uplifting and challenging stories.

We loved seeing people dressing up again for a new release (who doesn’t love an excuse to wear head-to-toe pink?) and sharing their experience on socials. It was also interesting to see movie-goers purchasing tickets pre-release. Some research showed that 43% of Barbie audiences were infrequent moviegoers, meaning they hadn’t been to the movies in the last 6 months.

Blockbuster stadium tours showed us how to make friends with strangers

After a patchy 2022, demand for concert tickets was back in full force, with international acts taking centre stage (and emptying wallets everywhere).

There are signs this hasn’t been good news for everyone – with indie gigs hurting at box offices across the country – and continuing the tough times for many small and medium companies.

Most newsworthy was the internet-breaking presales for Taylor Swift’s 2024 ERAS Tour (some of our team were lucky to snap up tickets).

Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour was her highest-grossing tour yet, and Swift’s revenue surpassed the billion-dollar mark.

Putting the market distortion aside, we’ve been amazed by the stadium experiences these acts are putting on for the crowds – and how adorable is the friendship bracelet trend? Swifties are bringing new levels of sweet to concerts, and heralding in a new era of connection through shared experiences.

Disability activism inspired new levels of access at events

It’s been a long time coming but in 2023, it was great to see some incredible examples of accessibility at events.

We’ve watched as events outdid each other with new access and inclusion initiatives, welcoming broader audiences than ever before.

Our friend Morwenna Collett reported back from Ability Fest: ‘There were Auslan interpreters on both stages all day (including the incredible Mikey Webb), captioning on the Main Stage, Bindi Maps for site navigation, a nicely kitted out sensory room, a chill out space, two accessible viewing platforms, ample first aid, a well-being tent, a service animal toileting area, accessible buggies to move people between the two stage areas, loads of helpful volunteers, a fab access liaison contact officer with lived experience, good signage, loads of track matting, shaded areas, strobe warnings, an awesome disabled photographer documenting the event and of course multiple disabled musicians on the bill.’ Wow.

We’re seeing more and more great initiatives popping up, like Auslan Santa at Westfield – and amazing acts by disabled artists at festivals around the country.

In January, our team launched a new research report – showing that its not just disabled and immunocompromised audiences who benefit from these changes, but the friends, families, support workers and groups that accompany them, so hear hear!

A big thank you to all the tireless advocates who have championed change for a long time.

Festivals brought the fun (and crowds) back into cities

We’re still talking about Adelaide Fringe’s huge achievement in selling 1 million tickets for their 2023 festival and topping their pre-COVID ticket sales from 2019. In possibly the biggest ticketing comeback of 2023, Adelaide Fringe was able to swing a miracle through strategic coordination across updated databases, a healthy mix of free and cheap offerings, an optimised box office experience and a sponsor-backed ticket flash sale.

Sydney WorldPride 2023 drew over 1 million audience members to the festival (double what was expected), with around 70,000 people coming to NSW especially to attend. It was the first time WorldPride, the largest LGBTQIA+ festival in the world, was hosted in the Southern Hemisphere. This history-making event was the biggest in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics!

It’s not all roses in festival world, with Dark Mofo breaking news as they announced a fallow year in 2024. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder so we’ll be watching with interest to see what audiences do when it returns to Hobart in 2025.

Major institutions turned up the volume on free events

In August, our major report Audiences 2023+ showed that cost is now the top barrier limiting people’s attendance at cultural events. Luckily, the arts sector is responding with an amazing array of free events.

The beloved Sydney Opera House celebrated it’s 50th birthday in 2023, and hosted a month-long Birthday Festival in October where audiences were treated to a broad range of ticketed and free events from theatre to contemporary music and lectures. They produced ‘Play It Safe’, a 50th Anniversary film showcasing dance, music and theatre, and shared 50 iconic Sydney Opera House film recordings for free over 3 months to celebrate 5 iconic decades.

The history-making Melbourne Now returned for the first time since 2013 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia. The exhibition took over NGV’s Fed Square gallery and included more than 200 Victorian practitioners across disciplines. The exhibition and programming saw audience attendance records break, with success factors from the unique mix of local creatives on show as well as the breadth of public programming – all enjoyed for free!

Thank you to all of the amazing artists, event organisers and cultural venues that worked so hard to make 2023 such a special year for audiences.

May the good times roll in 2024!

About the Author

Peta Petrakis
Research Analyst

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Patternmakers 18/10/23 Patternmakers 18/10/23

Audiences at the Heart: Key takeaways from the AMA Conference 2023

Have you ever wondered how our biology is affected by the events we attend? Audience heart rates, skin conductivity and skin temperature are now being measured to understand the emotional experience of performances.

Our Senior Research Analyst, Bianca Mulet, attended the AMA Conference 2023, with the theme being ‘audiences at the heart’. Read the article for her 4 key insights from the conference.

I recently had the incredible opportunity to attend the 2023 AMA Conference in Leeds, UK. Industry professionals from around the UK gathered for a two-day melting pot of ideas and teabags, delving into this year’s theme: audiences at the heart.

Today I’m sharing just a few of the insights from the jam-packed programme that struck me. As an Aussie in a sea of British accents, I’m grateful for the friendly faces and inspiring speakers I encountered who are paving the way for arts marketers, researchers and comms professionals in all stages of their career.

Scroll on for my highlights from four sessions.

Catching feelings

In “Exploring Emotion and Audience Behaviour”, cultural researcher Dr Ron Evans uncovered the integral role of emotion in the audience experience.

Audiences attend performances with the expectation of having an emotional experience – but only 43% report that they achieved that goal, raising a crucial question for organisations: Are your audiences finding the emotional experiences they seek?

We might get this information from a post-show survey, but this only captures part of it. Over the length of a performance there might be a range of things experienced. So, do you measure the most recent emotion? The strongest?

Dr Evans presented new research in measuring audience emotion during live performance. Participants wore a wristband that collected physiological data over the course of the show, including heart rate, skin conductivity and skin temperature, and at the end they were interviewed about their emotional experience at various points in the performance.

The experiment revealed that there was an increase in physiological reaction during the climax of the performance, most people predominately felt surprise and sadness – and there was crying. Moreover, the tools revealed some valuable insights for arts organisations:

Triggering content has the potential to captivate audiences and spark discussions and reflections about their own life experiences – and we cannot always predict what topics will be sensitive for individuals
Encouraging post-show discussions and feedback through digital or face to face talkbacks can be an effective audience engagement tactic
Organisations can experiment with innovative tools like live word clouds, asking “What do you think the main character was feeling at the end of the first act?”
Monitoring the return of audiences, such as those with access needs, can help organisations tailor their content and offerings.

The future of audiences

The Audience Agency presented the latest findings from the Cultural Participation Monitor (CPM) on what audiences are saying about how they engage with arts and culture. Similarly to our Audience Outlook Monitor, the CPM started out tracking audience sentiment throughout the pandemic and has since evolved to capture further insights around programming preferences, cost-of-living concerns and more.

The recent wave of research shed light on some of the generational differences in audience segments and opportunities look out for when engaging future audiences, as well as insights around the rise of participatory experience and digital/hybrid formats.

The session presented new patterns in values, taste and experiences, underscoring the prevalence of generational and life-stage factors. As the Audience Agency says, “Our future audiences are already here, they’re just younger.”

Here’s what they found about values, tastes and experiences:

Young audiences care about issues like climate change and social justice in a way that people always have – but they’re going to care whether or not the organisations they engage with care about those things (almost double that of older groups - see the British Social Attitudes survey)
Arts organisations should think about how they can transition to being a community resource and a part of the conversations that are already happening

The next generation are shifting from hierarchical traditional artforms to having a more eclectic and unpredictable taste and this is heightened with algorithm-driven content
The experience is going to become more important as we continue to be engulfed in content. Audiences will be more discerning about the ‘how’ than the ‘what’, and there will be emphasis on things worth getting out for.
The post-pandemic era means having a mix of FOMO (fear of missing out) and FOGO (fear of going out). If people are going out it needs to be something different - liveness, presence in a place, intensity: “It’s just a bit harder to get around to doing things. In the past if it was 6.5/10 it would be worth going to – and now it needs to be an 8/10, it has to really grab you”.

What it means for arts organisations:

Don’t shy away from prototyping, testing and experimenting with different audience experience formats, alongside your new content ideas. As the experience takes centre-stage, it’s worthwhile to trial what works for different audience segments.

Become a place of conversation and engage in dialogue with your audiences. Asking “Do you enjoy things that feel and look like this?” instead of “do you like opera?” could reveal more about your audiences habits, desires and interests.
Keep being curious, creative and courageous!

AI: friend, not foe?

AI is demanding our attention, whether we love it or loathe it. Marketing consultant Jo Burnham described how we’re currently in a golden moment to acquaint ourselves with the nuances of AI - even if it's just a few minutes of trialling and testing here and there. Burnham’s session delved into the pragmatic uses of different AI tools to empower arts marketing professionals, along with delving into the crucial aspects of its ethics and challenges.

Burnham asserted that arts marketers hold a distinctive advantage to embolden how we communicate with our audiences in new and captivating ways – and encouraged them to:

Be curious: Most AI tools are free to use – don’t let yourself be sold. A key platform Burnham shared is www.futuretools.io, which collects all the emerging AI software in a user-friendly interface, equipped with categories and audience up-votes. Don’t get deterred by the ‘taboo’ – experiment to build up your own knowledge and even explore how using multiple tools together could empower your work.
Be creative: GPT4, Ask Your PDF, Bing Chat, MidJourney and DALL-E2 are just a few examples of tools that Burnham says arts marketers should be aware of. In terms of what they’re good for, getting a handle on prompt engineering for GPT4, for instance, can assist you with creating social media posts to signpost longform content, critiquing your own copywriting, reducing copy length, directing your own learning and helping you plan marketing outputs.
Be critical: As with any new way of working, it’s important to continually interrogate AI and weigh up its costs and benefits. When traversing this unfamiliar path, some aspects and questions Burnham invited us to start think about include: Is this tool actually producing good content? What’s real and what’s hype? What am I being sold? Data security (when in doubt – don’t!) and systemic bias.

Here are a few reflections from arts marketers shared via Burnham’s presentation:

“These tools are useful for getting keyword and hashtags without paying for an expensive service. It often comes out with answers that are far too verbose. You must be specific.” – Anna Whelan, Head of Marketing and Communications at Tara Theatre

“AI speeds up writing and it sounds more engaging than what I write, but you have to be careful with the accuracy of info and plagiarism.” – Marketing and Communications Manager at a theatre in Wales.

“There is potential that in 10 years’ time, people will look back on his moment and see AI as a transformative event in culture. It feels like there are huge developments happening at phenomenal speed. It feels like a refocusing or a re-framing taking place.” – Steven Franklin, Social Media Manager at the National Archives.

Be Bold; Be Brave

The Conference keynote by Leeds5 – a group of female black and brown cultural leaders – underscored the importance of getting to know your audience before inviting them to buy your tickets.

An analogy by Keranjeet Kaur Virdee, from South Asian Arts and one-fifth of Leeds5, summed it up perfectly: Would you accept an invitation to a wedding if you didn’t know the bride and groom? (Short answer: no.)

It takes time, effort and energy to develop relationships with diverse communities that you want to reach, ensuring you’re conscious of cultural sensitivities requires an on-stage and off-stage approach. Here are some things to consider:

Ditch the familiar: Cultural exchange thrives when we step outside of our comfort zones and reach beyond our safe space. Complacency keeps us tethered to what we know – and hampers our ability to understand the unique needs and perspectives of diverse audiences.
Unlock new perspectives: Kully Thiari of Leeds5 said ‘We know audiences are at the heart, but we continue to make assumptions about them.’ Listening and understanding the community you want to engage with is more than ticking a box – it’s an invitation to take part in real dialogue, absorb diverse experiences and foster meaningful connections.
Solutions over symbols: Leeds5 used the example of Blackout Tuesday to remind us of the importance of moving beyond grand gestures towards concrete actions – and be proactive to foster positive change in our accessibility, inclusivity and sustainability goals.

Despite the challenges of post-pandemic rebuilding and cost-of-living pressures, I left the AMA conference feeling affirmed that the future is as promising as it is dynamic. Armed with inspiration from our colleagues across the pond, I’m excited about how Patternmakers can help shift and shape the landscape of audience research as we look to the next chapter.