Tiina Taatila marvels at the variety of UK festivals and the sources of funding available to them.
Recent years have seen an explosion in the number of arts and cultural festivals in the UK, ranging from established international festivals to small community events run on shoestring budgets and limited resources. At their best, festivals have something special and provide a platform for innovation and the generation of new work and ideas, with an emphasis on high quality work. However, the constant expansion of the sector has raised questions about the sustainability of many festivals, due to ever-increasing competition for funding, sponsorship, resources and capacity in terms of audiences, profile and size. In order to be sustainable, festivals now need to be effective and efficient in the way they operate, whilst remaining in tune with what is happening in the overall marketplace. In the face of these challenges, festivals are discovering a need to explore ways of moving towards greater organisational and long-term financial sustainability.
Organisation and annual cycle
Festivals vary in their make-up to include those small in size with just a few members of staff, to those organised completely on a volunteer basis with committees of dedicated and passionate people. Many of the volunteer organisers arent there to run a business, but instead do it for altruistic reasons, as they recognise the artistic value of the festival or the benefit it may have for the local community.
Festivals also have a unique annual cycle, as all work is geared towards a time-limited event. This means that organisers go through a long planning season focusing on areas such as fundraising, sponsorship, programming, marketing and event planning, leading up to a very intensive pre-festival period with emphasis on logistics and event management, followed by a quiet post-festival evaluation period. This type of structure has an impact on the way festivals are run, as their management requires flexibility and expertise in numerous areas. All this can prove very resource intensive; especially challenging for small community-focused volunteer organisations.
Income generation
The annual cycle also means that festivals need to manage their finances and fundraising activities carefully, to avoid shortfalls and cash-flow problems. Many festivals have become remarkably entrepreneurial in the way they raise money by diversifying their income sources so that they are not solely reliant on public funding or box office ticket sales. However, according to British Arts Festivals Associations (BAFA) 2002 study, Festivals Mean Business, ticket sales still remain the single most important source for festivals, contributing around one-third of the total income. BAFA has a large membership across the UK, including international events, such as the Edinburgh International Festival and Brighton Festival, through to small festivals including the Winchester Hat Fair and the Corsham Festival in Wiltshire. BAFAs research showed that income from public funding (such as Arts Council England and Lottery grants) remains an important source, but actually only contributes 7% of the total income. Additional income sources include 14% from sponsorship, 12% from earned income (such as programmes, catering and other merchandise) and 13% through local authority funding. Other sources of income for festivals include charitable trusts (9%), individual donations (3%) and European Union funding (0.5%).
In the East Midlands region, the Wirksworth and Buxton Festivals take place within 25 miles of each other, but have very different sources of income. Wirksworth is a well-established visual arts festival bringing culture to a rural area with limited provision for the arts, and relies very heavily on public funding and support from the local community in the form of volunteers and use of venues. In contrast, Buxton Festival has become well known in the region and nationally for its innovative opera programming, but only receives 10% of its budget from public funding. Buxton generates its income almost entirely from ticket sales, sponsorship, donations and individual support, and operates a policy of paying all its staff and not using volunteers.
Many festivals seem to have found new and innovative approaches to programming, marketing and audience development, but even with additional resources it is still crucial for the sector to ensure a continuation of public funding support through regular dialogue and sustained advocacy work to highlight the benefits of festivals. In the East Midlands, organisations such as Arts Council England, East Midlands Development Agency, Culture East Midlands and Cultivate have built links with festivals to encourage collaborative working.
Financial planning
Approximately 60% of BAFAs festival members are small-scale festivals with an annual turnover of less than £100,000 per year. Operating with limited time, money and staff involves heavy prioritisation of work, and finding time for financial planning can be difficult. Also, many organisers have learned their skills on the job and as few come from a financial management background, tasks such as the production of profit and loss sheets, monthly management accounts and end of the year tax returns can prove both difficult and time consuming. Strategic planning, including financial planning and budgeting should be a key feature of any organisations development. Financial plans which are updated regularly, monitored and integrated into day-to-day operations act as solid strategic tools and help the organisation in the long run. Combined with good performance monitoring, it should be easy to identify potential problem areas in advance.
Capacity building
Wider organisational development and capacity-building can enable organisations to operate more effectively and efficiently, leading to wider impact and long-term sustainability. For example, Oundle International Festival, well-known for its classical music concerts and courses for young organists, has shown resourcefulness in the way it has found a niche market, by running an International Summer School which has determined the early careers of hundreds of young organists around the world. The Schools Friends scheme with a large number of patrons who pay an annual subscription and give in-kind support such as accommodating visiting artists is a further source of income generation, as is the annual popular music fireworks concert attended by up to 5,000 people, which subsidises the core classical concerts.
Even though festivals are not commercially orientated or profit distributing, organisational development can actually enhance the end product and the impact of the festival. It is about enabling the organisation to achieve its mission, not about strengthening for its own sake, so the festivals reason for being does not need to be sacrificed for the sake of development. In fact the opposite is often true as festivals with a strong mission, a niche product, or innovative artistic content are usually the ones with success in both income generation and operations. In a holistic sense, sound and thorough business planning and good business practice, are the roots that support the artistic and cultural objective of a festival, no matter what its size.
Tiina Taatila is a Board member of BAFA and provides freelance marketing and business planning support for arts festivals. She is also part-time Project Manager for Cultivate, an audience and organisational development agency for the East Midlands.
w: http://www.artsfestivals.co.uk;
http://www.cultivate-em.org.uk
BAFAs international festivals conference runs from 11 to 13 October in Buxton, addressing issues currently affecting the sector, including topics such as What is the future of UK Festivals? and How Green is Your Festival?. Over 100 UK festivals along with representatives of government, local authorities, arts councils, and regional development and tourism agencies will come together to debate these and many other issues.