West Hollywood's Pride celebrations and OUTLOUD Music Festival draw over 150,000 attendees annually, representing significant municipal investment in programming, public safety, and infrastructure. Yet the city lacked rigorous data quantifying how these events translated into measurable economic returns—from local business revenue to tax generation and destination visibility. Without this analysis, justifying continued public investment proved difficult, and opportunities to maximize economic capture went unidentified. The city needed comprehensive economic impact assessment that could inform future programming decisions, demonstrate fiscal returns to stakeholders, and reveal strategies to strengthen connections between large-scale events and local business participation.

CVL Economics developed customized IMPLAN models to estimate direct, indirect, and induced economic impacts across West Hollywood's festival economy. In addition, the team designed and deployed multilingual intercept surveys capturing attendee demographics, geographic origins, and detailed spending patterns, while incorporating digital analytics to quantify social media reach and advertising equivalency value. Cost-benefit analysis demonstrated how municipal investments translated into tax revenue growth and citywide visibility. Beyond aggregate impact figures, the engagement identified specific opportunities to increase local spending capture and strengthen small business integration into festival supply chains—providing actionable intelligence to optimize future event programming and economic development strategy.