Instructions for collecting circus statistics • Sirkuksen Tiedotuskeskus

WHY DO WE COLLECT STATISTICS?

The annually collected performance and audience statistics help follow the long term development of the circus field and give insight into the current situation. Even though it’s not always simple to transform art into figures, the statistics are vital when delivering information about the circus field to the Ministry of Education and Culture and other policymakers. The annual statistics report paints a general picture that can be used, for example, to affect the development of circus and its status in society.

WHAT IS COLLECTED?

The circus statistics gather information about the amount of professional circus performances and their audience numbers. In addition to shows, information is collected about public programmes organized by circus professionals and the number of people participating in these. Financial information is collected from circus groups that receive government funding. The statistics published are based on information provided by the circus groups.

HOW TO REPORT YOUR STATISTICS

Statistics are reported on a per-group basis. The group can be permanent or a work group that is formed around a certain show. The group reports the figures for its own performances in both Finland and abroad and figures for any visiting performances it has arranged. Design work or guest performances in circuses, variety shows or similar events are not reported, unless it is a co-production by the group making the report. Also the statistics do not include appearances in theatre or television productions or student performances in circus schools.

Audience numbers are reported per performance. A performance is an event that the viewer can see with a single ticket, even if it consists of several separate shows during an evening. If a show or an event series has had a longer season in the same space, the entire season can be reported as one (number of performances and spectators separately), not each performance by itself.

Show or other performance?

In the statistic context show means a completed, whole work that has been premiered. Other performance means a single number, tailored show, demo etc. The performance of a single number is included in the statistics (in the section “Muu esitys / Other performance”) if the reporting group has been a co-producer of the entire show.

A public or VIP preview can be counted as a performance of the show, when the completed show is performed to an audience just before the official premiere. If it is an open rehearsal with a test audience, it will be included in the public programme statistic.

What is a public programme?

In addition to actual performances, statistics are collected on public programmes organized by circus professionals. Public programme refers to art-based, professionally organized activity that is aimed at the current or targeted circus audience. A public programme event can be e.g. an introduction to a show, a public discussion, open rehearsal etc. Activities aimed at circus professionals or circus students, such as residencies, workshops, lectures or circus as a hobby are not part of these statistics.

When a public programme event is a series that consists of several sessions (e.g. a course, workshop etc.) and the participants are more or less the same during each session, the amount of participants is not added together but instead the average number of participants per session is reported. Or if a multiple-session event has pre-registration, the number of registered participants can be reported.

Demos and work in progress performances can also be reported as a public programme, if they’re styled in the form of a participatory discussion or an open rehearsal. If they’re more akin to a premiere, such as work in progress performances at events like SubCase or CircusNext, they’re reported as “muu esitys / other performance” in the statistics. Don’t report the same demo twice – choose either public programme or other performance as the category.

Production and co-production of a show

Pay attention that the producers of a show are marked correctly. The production credit determines whether a show is counted among your own or visiting productions. A co-production is a show that is produced with one or more partners and in which the parties agree on sharing the financial and artistic investments and responsibilities during and before the rehearsal and premiere stages of the production. A completed production cannot be changed into a co-production afterwards. The performance and audience numbers of a co-produced show are credited to all participants, but in the final statistics the overlapping figures are subtracted from the total performance and audience numbers.

A commissioned show or not?

A commissioned show is a performance in which all the seats of the space are sold to a “client” so that it’s not possible for other people to buy tickets to the show. (E.g. a business buys an entire performance of a city theatre for its employees.) The audience number of a commissioned show can be marked into the statistics according to the venue capacity. A show that has open ticket sales or free admission is not counted as a commissioned show. Audience numbers for such events are always reported according to the actual attendance.

HOW TO FILL OUT THE STATISTICS FORM

Information is reported via an electronic form. The statistics questionnaire can be accessed with a personal link that is unique to each company, no user id or password is required. The same link can be used each year to report the information, and you can get the link from CircusInfo’s statistician. Each performance, each series of performances that took place in the same space and each public programme (or a series) is entered as its own entry by choosing “New response”. Here’s how:

Open the link you received via e-mail
Click “New response” from the top left side of the page.
Fill the form that opens and click “Lähetä”. The sent responses will open in a list view. Each line has the information from one sent response.
You are done, when you’ve A) sent a report for each performance and event that took place during the statistics year and B) filled out the information for each show (premiere date, performers, artistic work group etc.) into “Teoksen sisältötiedot / Show details”. The information you entered will now be shown below one another in the list view.

So for a show, fill the information for each performance / series of performances in the same space on its own form into “A) Teoksen esitys / Performance of a show” and send. Then open the form again and fill the same show’s details by choosing “B) Teoksen sisältötiedot ohjelmistoluetteloon / Show details into the programme listing”. (In addition to the statistics, we compile a programme listing of all shows performed by circus companies during the year.
NB! In case of a tour, which has consisted of the same show(s) for its entire duration, change the form type to “Esityskiertue / Show tour”. Then you don’t have to fill in the same information several times. Performance and audience numbers for each location on the tour will be filled to a separate Excel sheet, which can be downloaded from the form, filled and saved to your own computer. Then you can return to the form, upload the Excel sheet and fill the rest of the show details. If you want to edit the Excel sheet you’ve uploaded, click on the paperclip icon on the form. Then edit the information in the Excel file on your computer and upload it again.
Pay attention that the producers of the show are marked correctly. The production credits define whether the show is defined as your own or a guest performance.
In addition to performance and show details, remember to enter public programme information. Public programmes include e.g. show introduction, public discussion or open rehearsal.
The information you enter will be listed in the order that you’ve entered it on the forms. The list view can be sorted by e.g. report type or statistics year by clicking the relevant column on the header line.
If you wish to examine or edit an already sent report, choose “Edit” from the left side of a row in the list view. You can also remove information you’ve sent by clicking the trash can icon in the left side of a row.
If you want to return to the list view from the form view and examine information you’ve already entered, click the link in the form’s first column.
Don’t leave an incomplete form open in your browser as your session might time out and then you’ll need to fill the same information again.
If the statistics report is compiled by several members of your organization, take care that you don’t enter the same information several times. The system allows for multiple simultaneous users, but the list might not update in real time for every user logged in with the same link. When editing information, the form that’s sent last will take precedence.
The information will be downloaded from the system after the reporting deadline, but the list view will be accessible to you for further use.
You don’t need to specifically log out from the system, you can just close your browser session.
If you notice an error or missing information in the reports you sent after the deadline but before the statistics are published, contact the statistician as soon as possible at . If you lose your personal link, you can ask for it from the statistician (from January to June) or the head of communications (August to December). >> Contact information