Case Study: Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival

1. Introduction

The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a Kilkenny, Ireland festival showcasing international and Irish comedians, stand-up comedy performances, comedic authors, cartoonists, films and Question and Answer segments with special guests, directors and talent.
It was developed in 1994 by Richard Cook as a response to the growing comedic field in Ireland and has since transformed into a tourist attraction for the medieval city of Kilkenny and nearby regions. (Mc Keon, 2012) The event occurs each year between the 30^th of May and the 3^rd of June, providing locals and tourists with four days of relaxed and comical entertainment.

2. Event Type

2.1 Events

Differentiating between the diverse categories of events is a deeply discussed and somewhat resolved issue throughout history, particularly with contemporary tourism and event management researchers. Regardless of the definitions, events are the driving factor for the sociological and economic climate of towns, cities, states and even nations. Senior lecturer of architecture and built environment, Dr. Andrew Smith supports this by stating, ‘The facilities, infrastructure, and social legacy of events have the potential to reinvigorate urban spaces and communities.’  (Cited by Zeemering, 2013)

2.2 Special Event: Cat Laughs Comedy Festival

The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is best described as a special event, as stated by Leo Jago and Robin Shaw (1998) who describe it as, ‘The generic term used in a tourism sense and includes the following categories: minor special events: festivals: major special events…’ Getz provides an extended view on a special event, stating that they are, ‘A oncetime or infrequently occurring event outside the normal program or activities of the sponsoring or organising body.’ (Cited by Jago & Shaw, 1998) He concludes his thoughts by stating that a special event provides cultural and social rarity to the customer and participants of the event.

2.3 Background: Cat Laughs Comedy Festival

The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival occurs annually and takes place in a number of local venues including pubs, clubs theatres and small sports fields in Kilkenny. As a result of popularity, the festival attracts around 30,000 visitors each year according to the festivals official website.  (The Cat Laughs Limited, 2012) It also pours revenue into these venues and the wider community of hospitality, accommodation and tourism.  Additionally, Kilkenny is a popular tourist spot, as the city celebrated its 400 year anniversary since the initiation of a city status back in the 15^th century.  The city earns its attraction through its medieval castles, cathedrals, towers and heritage listed buildings.
Being such an iconic and serene location, the event has attracted large numbers of renowned comedians and talent such as Abandoman, Alfie Brown, Kevin Gildea and Dylan Moran (The Cat Laughs Limited, 2012). Furthermore, the event attracts celebrity status talent such as Irish comedian Chris O’dowd who use the event to launch new shows or ventures.
Overall, the Cats Laugh Comedy Festival has received wide praise locally and abroad, earning credible media praise, including a review in the Guardian calling it, ‘The best little comedy festival in the world.’ (Brown, G, 2007)

3. Social Impact
Events, festivals and tourist enterprises have significant impacts, opportunities, challenges and costs within the society they take place. 

3.1 Kilkenny Heritage and Culture

The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival emphasises local and cultural heritage. According to William and Morgon (2006) the uniquely titled event refers to the popular idiom, fighting like Kilkenny cats, which historically was said to have originated from a civil war-time poem about fighting cats and soldiers.
Since then, the poem and connecting phrase have been adopted by the city, and have translated into the event, drawing out the cities culture and history through the title.  This effectively ties modern culture with ancient tradition.  This is crucial to the Kilkenny tourism development strategy annual reports of 2006-2011 which focussed on, ‘Linking old and new, city and county’ (Kilkenny County Council, 2010). The important cultural significance of the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is to reflect an energetic social atmosphere which incorporates the surrounding traditions and cultural environment of the city.

3.2 Alcohol Consumption

Traditions such as the excessive consumption of alcohol do not always bring desirable social effects to a community. In the past, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival was sponsored by alcoholic beverage companies such as Carlsberg, Smithwick’s and Murphy’s Irish Stout.  While the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland state, ‘There is no proven link between alcohol consumption and marketing and sponsorship,’ (RTÉ news Ireland, 2013) Ireland chief medical officer Dr Tony Honham disagrees. He states  that alcohol , ‘Was a contributory factor in half of all suicides and deliberate self-harm, is associated with 2,000 beds being occupied every night in Irish hospitals and related illness cost the health care system €1.2 billion in 2007 with alcohol-related crime costing an estimated €1.19 billion in the same year.’ (The Journal,2012)
A 2010 Guardian review mentions, ‘Every pub in this dinky little city is overrun by stand-ups,’ which is a direct result of the festivals self-promoted pub trail, suggesting the glorification of alcohol to celebrate events by placing performances in venues that openly supply and encourage alcohol sales.

3.3 Discretionary Time and Income

People have the choice of where they spend their discretionary time and income, which often fuels an individual’s desire to travel or attend an event.  Event and tourism organisers often work together to appeal to the entertainment and travel impulse of a customer. The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival does this through the website which provides convenient links to accommodation, travel ideas and maps. (The Cat Laughs Limited, 2012)
It is integral to the success of the small town to create an event that will boost the economic climate within the city by partnering with other community services. Through developing tourism, Kilkenny can successfully increase location identity. Larger cities such as Dublin and events such as the Irish Fest and St. Patrick ’s Day are often bigger in these towns, and can leave smaller cities like Kilkenny lacking attention.

4. Stakeholders

The success of an event not only relies on planning and attendance, but on the involvement of stakeholders. Allen, Toole, Harris and McDonnell, support this view by stating, ‘The mood, needs and aspirations of the community will determine its receptiveness to event styles and fashions.’ (2011, p. 129). This suggests that the event managers should understand the needs, wants, attitudes and behaviours of the public in order to develop an event to suit, rather than create an event and hope the public receives it well.

4.1 Stakeholder List

The stakeholders for the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival include

      Kilkenny Council

      Ireland Government

      Sky and Sponsers

      Media

      Event Organisers

      Volunteers

      Comedians and Performers

      Audience and Spectators

      Venue Owners

4.2 Council and Government

The Borough Council sets the Kilkenny city policies and regulations.  It is important that such a small city of around eight thousand creates quality of life and demonstrates economic growth and stability through tourism gains. (Kilkenny County and Kilkenny City and Environs Development, 2011)
Additionally, the government’s tourism department, the Fáilte Ireland National Tourism Development Authourity of Ireland is partnered with the event, providing exposer and government funding (Failt Ireland, 2012). They support the event as a community initiative and as part of the wider tourism efforts of Ireland.  

Another government stakeholder is the Gathering, a government program partnered with tourism Ireland, aiming to promote events in the area as part of a year-long campaign to boost tourism.

4.3 Sponsors

Each year, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival calls on organisations and businesses to sponsor the event. For three years the event received no sponsor and therefore could not run the annual event. This demonstrates the crucial role of the sponsor, who provides the money and brand recognition needed to boost sales. The current sponsor for the festival is SKY TV.

4.4 Event Organisers

The event organisers include the CEO, Jane Russel and event managers such as Aisling Flynn, Leonara Mc Govern, Tracey Mc Keon and Pamela Reilly. The team strongly work around the concept of innovation. The festival coordinators are known for striving to keep fresh and innovative change as an integral aspect of each event. The same staff run the event each year and they experience a very low turnover rate.
CEO Jane Russel states that ‘ It is impossible to be successful in an entertainment or creative capacity without being innovative.’ (Mc Keon, 2012)

4.5 Volunteers

Volunteers are the face of both Kilkenny and the event. Volunteers of the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival are rewarded with free tickets and exclusive access to many V.I.P events. Each volunteer must sign the appropriate paperwork in order to be registered as an accepted helper and are expected to support the event by;

      Selling and receiving tickets at door

      Directing participants to venue and seat allocation

      Clearing-up after shows

4.6 Media

Media is the key to circulating hype, information and securing revenue generating sales for any event. According to the Prior Communications report, in 2007, The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival generated approximately twelve thousand dollars’ worth of media coverage, including 157 press articles and twenty broadcast pieces. (See appendix b) The media are invaluable but need to be updated, informed and respected. However, the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival tends to utilise the media after the event has circulated, at a lot of related media articles, twitter feeds and Facebook posts are reviews from after and before the event.  A number of key forms of media used by the event are;

      Newspaper

      Radio

      TV

      Facebook and Twitter

      Print Media- brochures

4.7 Comedians

The comedians are another group of stakeholders for the event. Russel states that, ‘There’s a sense of the festival being a little bit of a busman’s holiday for comedians because there are no awards and there’s no filming. (The Gathering Ireland, 2013)
At the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival, the comedians perform on an invite-only arrangement and have the luxury of no competition or pressure throughout the event.  This appeal is a point of difference to the festival and encourages a relaxed and friendly atmosphere for this stakeholder group.

4.8 Venue owners

Venue owners hold the monopoly of land capital throughout the event. However, pub, club, sporting field and theatre owners are willing to offer their assets during the event as they are guaranteed to increase their profits through participant sales. (The Cat Laughs Limited, 2012)

4.9 Participants

The participants of the event are the individuals who purchase tickets or attend free activities during the special event. As a participant or spectator, it is a priority to be entertained and to feel connected to the purpose and community of the event. Unsuccessful or unappealing events will see a decrease in sales while events that resonate with the participants’ wants and passions will see an increase in attendance and sales.

5. Economic Impact

Events provide an essential influx of revenue into an area or community. According to the Kilkenny annual report, in the wider boundaries of Kilkenny County, an estimated 140 million dollars per year is generated as a result of over 200,000 tourists. (Kilkenny County Council, 2012)

5.1 Event Revenue

In the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival alone, the website states that, ‘The festival attracts in excess of 30,000 visitors to Kilkenny, resulting in more than €8 million being invested into the local economy,’ (The Cat Laughs Limited, 2012). This suggests that approximately 10 per cent of the Kilkenny annual tourist revenue is a direct result of the Cat Laughs Festival.

5.2 Ireland Economy

Ireland is suffering economic hardship as Stinson Jeffrey, 2008 states, ‘Now the jobs and high incomes are disappearing as construction projects such as the U2 Tower are postponed, houses remain unsold, and property prices are in free-fall.’ This means that people are spending less, and as a result, luxury items such as entertainment become less sought after. The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival has tried to resolve this issue by lowering ticket prices by 5 euro.
Regardless of the economic state, according to James Monagle’s PhD thesis (2009) the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival has grown, which has resulted in an increase in sales and revenue. According James Monagle (2009), from 1995 to 2004 the number of venues used has gone from six to fourteen, the number of comedians has increased from 37 to 51, the number of attendance has risen from 16 thousand to over 30 thousand which has resulted in an eight million dollar increase. (See appendix a)

5.3 Government Funding

Government funding also helps boost the chances of economic growth in the first place. The Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Michael Ring announced a 2012 funding program of 2.6 million euro for the 34 national festivals in Ireland, one of which being the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival. (Failt Ireland, 2012). He supported his decision by stating, ‘Tourism is key to our economic recovery and I’m especially pleased to launch such a strong package of festivals for this year,’ (Failt Ireland 2012). He explained that festivals attract visitors to the nation and stimulate economic activity and that the funding was an investment into a sector which generates over 5 billion euros and many jobs.

5.4 Customer Expense

Besides funding and sponsorship, the event gains revenue through ticket sales and the community mutually benefits. The main customer expenses of the event are the ticket purchase for each chosen performance, food, drink and alcohol consumption during the shows and accommodation and travel for visitors. On the other hand, the main expenses for the event itself are hiring the comedians, hiring the venues and media.

6. Conclusions

The Cat Laughs Comedy Festival is a tactically effective special event which has seen large growth considering its opposition against the economic climate and a small and unfamiliar location. In each section discussed in the paper, keys and recommendations for the event structure, social impact, stakeholders and economic climate will be highlighted. 

Firstly, the annual occurrence of the event provides planners time to build upon innovative ideas, hire comedians, review the market and public interest and promote the event. The time-frame also builds anticipation surrounding the event however this could be improved with more assertive community engagement.

The social impact of the event reflects the cities’ heritage and culture, which also creates an appeal of tradition to the tourists. However, today’s social relies largely on social media to connect with friends, family and events. It is recommended that the event planners become more active on social media through;

      Offering participation discounts for ‘shares and likes’

      Running social media campaigns and competitions

      Utilising Foursquare so that participants can ‘check-in to the event

      Transfer to a social registration system such as EventBite

These tools will ensure the event is at the top of participants minds and will create a stronger connection between the event and the participants.

Additionally, there are large stakeholder groups within the event which provide sponsorship, funding, support, media and sales. The one downfall is that the event relies on these groups to gain money to start-up the event in the first place. Due to this dependency, the event managers should develop more fundraising programs throughout the year so that sponsors and ticket prices are not the only thing brining in crucial funds.

Money is also a topic when it comes to the economic impact of the event. The event is stable and growing, and pours abundant sales into the community, however, due to the steep economic hardship, ticket prices could be reduced more than five euro. The marketing or Public relations team are advised to further look into the motivations and attitudes of the public when it comes to discretionary time and money in order to view current trends. Knowing what the public wants will not only improve the event, but have the potential to increase sales.