For a few days each fall, the music of the NC Folk Festival spills beyond the stage to entertain listeners in coffee shops, restaurants and hotel lobbies throughout downtown Greensboro.
It’s not only captivating to music fans; it’s also a sweet sound for the local economy.
The event creates $9.93 million in impact for local businesses and the community, according to MBA student consultants at the UNCG Bryan School of Business and Economics.
Thanks to the work of four students in the School’s Capstone class, the Folk Festival now has a gauge to measure the financial benefit of the annual event, which draws 136,000 visitors to the city’s downtown over a three-day weekend in September.
Festival staff requested the economic impact study, hoping to use the data to obtain state support, grants and private donations.
“If we want to continue to grow this festival and provide an amazing cultural experience
in Greensboro, we need to quantify our value to secure funding,” says Jodee Ruppel, the executive director of the NC Folk Festival. “The students’ work will help us make our case to
keep building community, arts and culture and showing off the very best of North Carolina.”
The average visitor stayed for 139 minutes and spent $58 to $73 at surrounding restaurants, shops and other businesses, the Capstone project team discovered. One-quarter of the visitors came from at least 30 miles away, which contributed to the rental of more than 1,500 hotel rooms.
As compared to other weekends in September, the festival dates resulted in twice the average dining spend, 1.9 times the typical grocery spend and 1.35 times the spend at retail shops and service businesses.
Students hope their project makes a difference. “There is a clear path to expanding state and public-sector funding by translating the festival’s impact into ROI for investors,” said Jadyn Koranteng, ’26 MBA.
The team recommended sharing these positive outcomes with downtown business owners, who have expressed some concerns in past years about street closures and other disruptions.
By centralizing data collection through a unified point-of-sale system and a visitor registry, the festival can better capture its impact, the students said. “Improving your data collection can unlock more support,” Kyle Carlee ’26 MBA added.
The team also suggested appointing business liaisons, offering package deals or discounts, and sharing annual reporting on the festival’s economic impact.
The data will be crucial to gaining funding and improving the festival’s reputation with downtown business owners, says Savannah Thorne, the artistic director of the NC Folk Festival.
“We can gather stories from attendees that are incredibly moving,” she said. “But in this economy, we also have to prove we’re creating value to continue to be relevant. This report shows that when you invest in culture, you are also investing in the vibrancy of your city and neighborhood, and we can confirm that now based on this data. It will be extremely helpful for us.”
