Visitor Spending at a Music Festival

The question

How to approach this pie chart question

Pie charts show proportions of a whole. With two pies, the task is to describe how the shares changed or differ.

1. Say what the whole is and what the percentages measure.
2. Overview: the biggest share and the main shift between charts.
3. Compare the largest slices first, then the smallest.
4. Use fractions and percentages (just over a third, roughly 20%).

How to plan this answer

Structure

1. Introduction: paraphrase the pie chart, which shows how visitors spent their money at a city music festival in 2024 across five categories.
2. Overview: tickets take the largest share at 38%, accommodation is the smallest at 10%, and food and drink is the second-largest category.
3. Body paragraph 1: the two largest categories, tickets (38%) and food and drink (24%), and their combined share.
4. Body paragraph 2: the three smaller categories, merchandise (15%), transport (13%) and accommodation (10%), and how they compare with the largest slice.

Key features to spot

• Tickets account for 38%, which is 14 points more than food and drink (24%).
• Tickets and food and drink together make up 62%, roughly three-fifths of spending.
• Merchandise, transport and accommodation are close together at 15%, 13% and 10%, and their combined share (38%) equals the ticket share alone.
• Tickets are nearly four times the size of accommodation (38% against 10%), the smallest slice.
• The five slices total 100%, so the shares can be checked against one another.

Useful vocabulary

• accounted for: Tickets accounted for 38% of visitor spending.
• the largest share: Tickets had the largest share of spending.
• a fraction of: Accommodation was a fraction of the size of ticket spending.
• combined: Food and drink combined with tickets makes up 62% of spending.
• the smallest proportion: Accommodation had the smallest proportion of spending at 10%.
• just over: Merchandise took just over a seventh of spending.
• in comparison: In comparison, transport accounted for 13%.
• the remaining categories: The remaining categories each took less than a quarter of spending.

Common mistakes

• Describing the figures as money amounts, when the pie shows percentage shares of total spending.
• Calling transport 'much smaller' than merchandise; the gap is only 2 points (13% against 15%).
• Listing all five slices in full instead of grouping the smaller categories.
• Quoting the accommodation share as 'a fifth' or similar rounding that misstates the 10% figure.
• Speculating about why visitors spent more on tickets, which the prompt does not allow.

Examiner tip: Lead with the largest slice, contrast it with the smallest, and use combined shares to add interest without repeating every figure.