Ask Downtown business owner Cindy Platt about One Spark 2015, and you won’t be surprised to hear she was pretty pleased.
“We did a month’s worth of sales in one week,” said the Grease Rags Clothing Company owner, “and the numbers increased 100 percent over last year!”
Just around the corner at MOCA Jacksonville, communications director Denise Reagan said more than 20,000 people walked through the museum’s doors during the festival – 50 to 100 times as many visitors MOCA normally sees in a week.
But these stats barely scratch the surface of One Spark, which this year once again broke its own records, including an attendance increase of 60,500 over 2014.
We reached out to the One Spark team – who are no doubt exhausted! – to compile some pretty impressive numbers that share a snapshot the festival’s impact this year.
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THE EXPERIENCE
- 320,500 total attendees
- Of the total, more than 500 attended the Speaker Summit and more than 10,000 attended the Opening Ceremony and free Echosmith and Mates of State Concert
- 50+ sponsors and partner organizations
- More than 40 million #onespark social media impressions during the week of One Spark
CREATORS AND CONTRIBUTIONS
- 537 Creators
- 117,169 votes cast
- $93,324 in contributions
- View the winners
GETTING AROUND
- 82,227 Skyway trips
- 7,962 riders used an overflow JTA shuttle bus
FOOD + DRINK
- 275 kegs of beer sold
- 844 gallons of frozen drinks sold
- 33 food vendors
DOWNTOWN AMBASSADORS
- 1,652 public engagements (1,325 directions given and 328 pedestrian assists)
- 628 miles logged on bike and Segways
- 80.5 in additional hours worked
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Now that the project booths are packed, the One Spark festival headquarters closed and the stages broken down, how do we keep the momentum going? For starters, hang out Downtown more often!
Grab a cup of joe from the new Urban Grind on Bay Street.
Enjoy a read in the sunshine at Chamblin’s Uptown‘s cafe seating or the Main Library’s courtyard.
Indulge in a hand-crafted Dos Gatos cocktail, buckets of treats from Sweet Pete‘s or mouth-watering fine-dining experiences on the Southbank.
Take the kids for a morning at MOSH, river taxi ride across the St. Johns and afternoon in Hemming Park.
And, of course, attend one of thousands of events that take place Downtown between One Sparks – Art Walks, concerts, sporting events, open-air markets, seasonal festivities and so much more.
The possibility of discovering your new favorite River City activity awaits Downtown, and DVI has you covered with information on events, dining, nightlife and parking, plus a fun set of itineraries to get you started. We’ll see you again soon in #DTJax!
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