Executive Summary of the Cologne Carnival Study of 25 May 2009
1. Assignment
In the summer of 2008 the Festival Committee of the Cologne Carnival of 1823 commissioned the Cologne branch of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to perform a study on the social and economic importance of Cologne Carnival. The study was conducted from 1 August 2008 to 31 March 2009 in the form of an analysis and evaluation of comprehensive economic data and a survey of several dozens of social, industrial, political, cultural and carnival opinion leaders.
2. Social importance of Cologne Carnival
Cologne Carnival owes its social importance to four functions:
– Maintaining traditions: Cologne Carnival has a very long tradition, the oldest evidence of its existence dates back to the 14th century. In this context, one should point out the strong roots of Cologne Carnival in Christianity. Until this very day the schedule of the carnival season follows the Christian calendar and its most important rule is: “Am Aschermittwoch ist alles vorbei” (“On Ash Wednesday it’s all over”). In addition, carnival symbolises the peaceful resistance of the people of Cologne against the authoritarian Prussian regime. Today, the tradition of Cologne Carnival is primarily maintained and continued by the Rose Monday Procession, the Cologne Trifolium (Kölner Dreigestirn) and the 160 carnival societies (including 110 organisation committee societies) in Cologne. In total, around 20,000 people (i.e. 2% of Cologne’s population) are involved in the organised carnival festivities and another 10,000 people in societies and clubs that are not associated with the organisation committee. So the maintaining the tradition is the backbone function of Cologne Carnival.
- Social function: The social importance of Cologne Carnival is mirrored on the one hand by annual donations to the carnival societies of around 1.5m euros. And on the other, citizens who are involved in organising carnival show a commitment to social institutions like old people’s homes and the preservation of historic monuments in many different ways. Free events in facilities for the disabled or like the Volkssitzung (people’s session) at Neumarkt enable people to participate in the fun of carnival who would normally get little chance to do so. In addition, carnival has an important integration function in today’s multi-cultural society. With its multi-faceted platforms carnival offers an integration opportunity for various social groups and plays a major role in fostering the development of young people, e. g. by supporting activities in schools.
– Networking function: Cologne Carnival plays a major role in Cologne’s economic life. Due to the many social contacts during the year in the societies and especially during the season, carnival is an ideal place for making contacts, which is often used especially by one-man companies and SMEs to establish business contacts. Joint visits of carnival events with staff or customers serve to motivate teams and intensify customer relations. Many companies see an active commitment to carnival as an element of their corporate social responsibility today.
– Ambassador function of Cologne Carnival: Cologne Carnival is an essential branding element of the city of Cologne. Many local companies use carnival to associate their products and services with the positive attributes of carnival. However, one should add that despite comprehensive TV coverage the importance of carnival beyond the region and especially outside Germany is much smaller than is often assumed. Other folk festivals like carnival in Rio and the Oktoberfest in Munich have a much stronger presence abroad.
All in all, one can say that Cologne Carnival is an important pillar in the social life of the city of Cologne and enjoys a great popularity both with the people of Cologne and in the region.
3. Economic impact of Cologne Carnival
The economic impact of Cologne Carnival – based on current BCG estimates – is worth around 460m euros p.a. and has therefore grown overproportionately since the last study sixteen years ago. Carnival creates around 5,000 jobs in Cologne and the region and accounts for at least 4 to 5m euros in annual trade taxes for the city of Cologne.
Its economic impact is based on the three pillars of carnival sessions, which account for a turnover of around 150m euros, carnival processions (especially the Rose Monday Procession) that also account for approx. 150m euros, and “pub carnival” and private parties, which generate around 160m euros. For all three pillars direct sales generated by tickets, restaurants, logistics and other services are just as high as the indirect yields from costumes, hairdressing services, etc. Hence, carnival is a vital factor for many companies in the hospitality and logistics industry. In the 2009 season carnival successfully withstood the economic crisis: Despite the worst financial and economic crisis since the 1930s world-wide visitor figures remained on par with the previous year’s figure in 2009, the Rose Monday Process attracting 1.2m visitors alone.
4. Outlook
Even Cologne Carnival cannot escape the three key megatrends of “globalisation”, “demographic development” and “changing values”. So for Cologne Carnival globalisation means a stronger necessity to integrate foreign citizens combined with the opportunity to attract new visitors and participants from outside Germany. In the medium term, the demographic development can be rated as favourable for Cologne Carnival, as 50 to 70-year-olds account for the majority of active members in the carnival clubs. In the long-term, however, the large percentage of older people is a threat for carnival, if not enough young people join the ranks. Therefore stronger efforts will be required to kindle enthusiasm for carnival in young people every year.
Changing values, reflected both by changing leisure and consumer behaviour, can be both a risk and opportunity for Cologne Carnival. The opportunity lies in carnival’s ability to meet the need for more social contacts and leisure events with suitable offers. The risk lies in a noticeably rising trend favouring large events and “eventisation”, which is likely to lead to a necessary distinction and modification of event formats.
Finally, it should be noted that it is crucial for Cologne Carnival to continue to strike the right balance between tradition, social integration and commercialisation. Many discussion partners emphasise that an exaggerated commercialisation, e.g. with advertising measures in the Rose Monday procession, would destroy this balance.
