Study: Reggae music festival pumps $22M into St. Pete economy

According to a report from an independent research company, the Reggae Rise Up music festival pumped $22 million into the St. Pete economy last October.

The St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership, in conjunction with festival organizers, hired Tampa-based Meshsem, Inc. to survey attendees at the three-day Vinoy Park festival. The 2021 Reggae Rise-Up attracted 15,000 people per day, the majority of them staying in local hotels, motels and B&Bs.

That’s all good news, as the seventh Reggae Rise Up begins Friday at the fenced-off bayfront site. It is close to selling out, although certain ticket levels remain (click here).

(It’s not “seventh annual,” as Covid forced the event to be postponed and rescheduled several times.)

The multi-band festival, said Downtown Partnership CEO Jason Mathis, “is such a good fit for downtown St. Pete – the vibe, the energy, it’s completely consistent with what St. Pete is about.

“It makes sense in terms of enhancing our culture. Enhancing our sense of place and our values. And also enhancing our economy. And the economy is the thing that we haven’t always enunciated or been very clear about in the past.”

Meshsem reported that 2021 attendees came from every U.S. state, plus Canada, Germany, Russia, Japan, Croatia, Switzerland, Antigua, Angola, France, Aruba, Albania, Peru, Netherlands, Paraguay, Italy, the Bahamas and the United Kingdom.

Throughout each year, Utah-based Reggae Rise Up travels between four different American cities. Festival co-founder Bryan Borreson said the St. Petersburg event is always the best-attended.

“There’s a certain kind of magic that happens down here,” he explained. “Which is the water, mixed with the grass and sand … and the city backdrop. And the whole community is behind us when we show up. And we’re here quite a bit, so it’s a second home, so to speak.”

The spending breakdown in the Meshsem report:

Direct impact: $18,923, 310.56 in direct economic output. Factors in the money directly injected into the economy by attendee spending on tickets, hotels, restaurants and vendor purchases. Additionally, it includes spending by event staff locally to put on the event.

Indirect impact: $2,425,149.44 in indirect economic output. Includes income resulting from the event spending  – for example, vendors purchasing items/raw materials from other local companies so that they can sell the finished goods at the event.

Induced impact: $628,053.04 in induced economic output. Local (household-level) spending made possible by the wages earned or attendee spending during the event.

“Sometimes,” Mathis said, “you do an event and it’s just money that circulates in the local community. The compelling thing about this event is that so many people came from outside of St. Pete. So that spending is new money coming into our community.”

Added Terry Marks, executive director of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance: “It’s not just the economic impact, it’s also the spirit of reggae. And the humanity of reggae the energy and inspiration of reggae. And everything that that music is all about. So it’s really a gift to our city.”