A Toronto research firm has embarked on a six-city tour to study the attitudes Canadian festival-g’ers have towards sponsorship.

And, not surprisingly, in light of the brouhaha over bill C-71, a big question for Enigma Research is whether festival-g’ers support ­ or oppose ­ tobacco company sponsorship.

So far, the findings seem to depend on whom you ask.

Surveying 500 people from each event, the firm has found that those attending the du Maurier Downtown Jazz Festival in Toronto are more supportive of tobacco sponsorship than visitors to the non-tobacco-funded Ottawa Tulip Festival.

According to Enigma, 16.3% of jazz festival attendees surveyed agreed that sponsorship of arts and cultural events by tobacco companies should be banned, against 26.3% of those surveyed at the tulip festival. About 10% of participants at both festivals weren’t sure.

And, while about half the survey participants at each festival (59.1% at the jazz festival, 49.7% at the tulip festival) disagreed with the statement ‘Arts and cultural events could do just fine without tobacco sponsorship,’ one in five jazz festival visitors (21.3%) and close to one in three (31.3%) of tulip festival visitors agreed that arts and cultural events would survive without cigarette company support.

The study, which is to survey 3,000 Canadians in total ­ 500 attendees for each of six Canadian festivals ­ poses 30 questions to determine attitudes towards particular festival sponsors and sponsorship by industry, along with visitors’ recall of sponsor names and their reaction to specific sponsorship methods.

Mike Harker, partner at Enigma, says that his firm’s goal is to produce mini-studies for sale to companies in the beer, financial service and tobacco industries.

He says that, despite his best efforts, he was unable to pre-sell the study. ‘People just don’t buy into anything,’ he says, adding that this is the first year the young firm has undertaken such a project.

Harker says the fact that the study wasn’t pre-sold may work in his company’s favor because it now appears unbiased.

So far, researchers have compiled information from Toronto’s du Maurier Downtown Jazz Festival and Ottawa’s Canadian Tulip Festival.

By the end of the summer, they will have visited the International Busker Festival in Halifax, Saint John’s Festival by the Sea, Festivale des montgolfieres (hot air balloons) in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu outside of Montreal and Niagara’s Grape and Wine Festival.

Harkner says the study, which should be ready in late September, will sell for $6,600 but companies can buy sector-specific portions for about half that amount.