Music festival rocks a $10 million impact in Jacksonville

The Welcome to Rockville music festival generated $10.27 million in direct and indirect economic impact, according to a new study from Visit Florida.

Seventy percent of those who showed up to Metropolitan Park in Downtown Jacksonville visited from outside Duval County - and of those, 67 percent said they were very likely to visit Jacksonville again.

The highlights of the economic impact are:

Estimated Event-Related Visitor Hotel Nights in the Region: 9,850 Average Length of the Visitor's Hotel Stay: 2.26 days Average Number of Visitors Per Room: 2.65 visitors Estimated Number of Visitors Staying in Hotel Lodgings: 11,550 Estimated Direct and Indirect Economic Impact of Visitors: $10.272 million

It was the second year in a row the festival resulted in a sell-out of all Downtown hotels, according to concert producer Danny Wimmer.

'This year, our festival attendance is up 60 percent, and most of that is from outside Duval County, which proves that Jacksonville is a destination city,' Wimmer said.

The path to organizing concerts at Metropolitan Park hasn't always been easy. A deal was reached in January after residents across the river complained about noise levels.

The new agreement has the city monitor decibels levels every five minutes. If the event goes over 105 decibels, the event has five minutes to lower or face a fine.

With the new agreement, Metropolitan Park isn't losing events like Welcome to Rockville to other venues like the St. Augustine Amphitheater.

'I plan to continue to grow Welcome To Rockville as a national event that will have an even greater economic impact on Jacksonville as we expand,' Wimmer said.

Entities 0 Name: Rockville Count: 3 1 Name: Jacksonville Count: 3 2 Name: Wimmer Count: 2 3 Name: Duval County Count: 2 4 Name: Visit Florida Count: 1 5 Name: St. Augustine Amphitheater Count: 1 6 Name: Danny Wimmer Count: 1 7 Name: Downtown Jacksonville Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: wimmer Score: 30 1 Name: visitors Score: 30 2 Name: rockville Score: 30 3 Name: jacksonville Score: 24 4 Name: metropolitan Score: 19 5 Name: hotels Score: 18 6 Name: decibels Score: 16 7 Name: impact Score: 15 8 Name: duval Score: 15 9 Name: festival Score: 14 authors 0 Name: Catherine Byerly Url: http://ift.tt/TBBmqT Media Images 0