Graduate Student Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana
Over 80 insect festivals exist in the USA; but little research is available on audience demographic composition and motivations for visiting these events. The Insect Festival Working Group was formed to identify a core set of evaluation questions to allow comparison across venues to see what is similar, what is different, and to identify best practices. We report the results of a pilot evaluation method based on existing and validated protocols for evaluations of science festivals (EvalFest). This was the first visitor evaluation in the 32 year history of Purdue Bug Bowl. 2022 Bug Bowl visitors shared many characteristics of Science Festivals. In particular, attendees tend to be already interested in science, have college degrees, and do not fully represent the demographics of the surrounding community. We discuss what this means in our quest to be more inclusive in outreach efforts.
