Due to unexpected events, I had to travel home for the weekend and didn’t have much time to search for some really cool data. I did though find some simple statistics that would get me started. I wanted to adjust the interactive bar chart to represent the number of attendance at three various festivals between the years 2011-2013.
- The first festival I wanted to get the attendance statistics for was the biggest festival in Austin, Austin City Limits. ACL is the king of the festivals. With over 75,000 people in attendance per day, ACL is one of the largest festivals in the nation. After searching for numbers, I found that for all three years, 2011-2013, the attendance doesn’t vary much. They all stayed around 75,000 a day. I guess once you reach your capacity, there is only so much you can expand to gain more space.
- The next festival is one that everyone knows as SXSW, aka South by Southwest. This festival is a compilation of music, film, and interactivity all going on in downtown Austin. Just concerning our self with the music part of the festival, it’s hard to determine accurate information on how many total people attended because there are a various amount of shows and events that are free and don’t require the purchase of a wristband or ticket. But a good number to go with for the 2013 festival is about 57,000 total over three days at the Auditorium Shores Stage. For the 2012 SXSW, a total of 55,000 people attended the Auditorium Shores Stage.
The last festival I searched is the upcoming Fun Fun Fun Festival. Having searched multiple places, the only source I could find information on attendance was from a very credited blogger. He reports from Transmission Events that the total attendance for F3F was over 55,000 people for the entire weekend in 2012. An article from Spin suggested that a total of 65,000 attended in 2013, an 18% jump from the previous year!
When I first started this data search, I was hoping there would have been a few drastic changes from year to year in the number or attendees. Disappointingly, the numbers only increased minimally, resulting in the graphs barely moving at all. I would have to find some better numbers to have the graph fluctuate more.
After completing this project, I have learned a lot of new information that will be very practical and useful in my future. I really enjoyed having to take already existing data and find a way to tell a story with it. I feel like having the pre-written code for the chart definitely made the project easier and gave us more time to focus on the data. This project showcased just how important and tedious the troubleshooting and tweeking of the code to make it fit our needs is. I wish I could have had a little more time to find some better data story to tell but the overall project was enjoyable and got me ready for the next step in this class.
Here is the link to my interactive chart and I hope you enjoy!