Today I attended this annual Sakura Days event which celebrates Japanese culture and each year you have to pay an admission fee to get in just like a fair of sort. However, this year I was confused as near the entrance they had all these tents with activities outside as well as various vendors. Did I accidentally walk through the paid gate? Apparently there were two sections where this year they made one free for the general public and one inside as usual. This made the inside less busy than usual and there were less vendors as well.
It makes me wonder if that was done as a strategy to further generate interest for the event which would in-turn help the organization raise more money. Or, would this result in more people simply opting to view the free exhibits instead? Most of the vendors and food trucks were inside the paid venue. With that thought, it makes you wonder if people make less considering it is split up like this.
Although for the most part it seems like people were just like me where they didn’t know there was going to be a free exhibit. So everyone that planned to attend already paid and jut saw both if they felt like it. I don’t usually see people try this strategy such as a carnival that places a free ride outside the main attraction areas in hopes to lure more people in.
I’m not sure if it works in the same manner such as giving people free samples of food where hopefully if they enjoy it enough, they then buy the retail product. But it’s interesting to see an organization do this.