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Spoleto Festival USA digging for financial help
By Scott Miller
Staff Writer
This year’s Spoleto Festival USA was one of a kind, in both artistic and financial performance.
Sellout crowds gazed at the acrobatics and dazzling costumes in “Monkey: Journey to the West” in one of the festival’s most renowned, most viewed and, at around $1.3 million to stage, most expensive shows in town.
But future festivals might not be able to keep up as organizers face declining corporate contributions, the loss of $246,000 from the state and Spoleto’s first deficit in 12 years.
“The monkey show is unique. It was a unique opportunity. It happened to be a particularly expensive unique opportunity,” said Spoleto Executive Director Nigel Redden. “But I can’t think of another similar show that we’ve avoided doing in the past because of finances.”
Redden said his challenge is to make each year’s Spoleto Festival better than the last, and that money isn’t always the answer. At times, he said, money can stifle creative thinking.
“Sometimes, it makes you soft,” he said.
Monkey stands alone
Still, the multimillion-dollar show must go on, and Spoleto needs corporate support.
“Does the state funding cutback and economic slowdown have the potential to cutback the festival? Yes,” said Carlos Evans, treasurer of the Spoleto board of directors. “Spoleto as a whole will never be able to pay for itself without contributions, corporate donations and state funding. No arts organization in the country can do that.”
Because the festival’s fiscal year doesn’t end until August, organizers still hope to generate enough donations to push the show back in the black.
The festival’s budget reached $8.5 million this year, a near 13% increase from $7.4 million last year that could lead to a $250,000 deficit.
Monkey had a lot to do with that. In 2006, Spoleto paid about $2.8 million on performance fees, costumes, sets and production, according to the organization’s most recent tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Its fiscal year runs from September to August, and the 2007 filing is not due until mid July, according to the Secretary of State’s office. This year’s
financial picture won’t be fully visible until August. Monkey alone cost around $1.3 million, and the costs of other shows increased too.
This year, the festival was hit hard by the exchange rate, as the weakening dollar made it more expensive to pay European performers, said Eric Friberg, chairman of the festival’s board of directors.
Rising fuel costs also increased transportation expenses to bring performers and cargo into Charleston, Evans said.
State of the arts
Meanwhile, Spoleto faces declining revenues. The festival’s state funding became the casualty of a tight fiscal year in Columbia. Lawmakers were forced to cut millions from the budget as revenue projections declined.
The $246,000 Spoleto has received from the state each year was just enough to cover Redden’s salary, but a significant amount of money nonetheless.
“In this particular case it was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Friberg said.
In addition, donors have gotten tight with the buck as the economy slumps. Corporate donations are down more than 10%. In 2006, Spoleto received more than $2.4 million in contributions, according to its latest tax filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Coupled with government grants, that covered about half of the festival’s expenses with ticket revenue covering the rest.
“One donor last year who gave $100,000 gave $25,000 this year,” Redden said. “Another donor was down 50% in their contribution.”
Preferring cheaper seats
Spoleto festival-goers are choosing to buy cheaper tickets as they face their own fiscal constraints, Friberg said. That makes it impossible to raise admission prices to boost revenue, Evans said. Organizers do not want to price out attendees.
“Part of goal is to enlighten them,” he said. “If you tried to recover 100% of cost in the ticket, you would totally limit the audience.”
Still, revenue from ticket sales remained relatively constant over the past three years. Spoleto sold 73,157 tickets this year worth nearly $2.86 million. Last year, ticket sales totaled about $2.95 million and $2.97 million in 2006.
Despite, the festival’s worldwide recognition, ticket sales will never cover costs, organizers said. Admissions revenue covers less than 50% of the festivals cost. That’s typical, said Friberg, who has worked at a similar festival in Atlanta.
Organizers now face the task of cutting expenses.
“First and foremost, if we have a deficit this year, we will not look to recover that from next year’s festival,” Evans said. “If we’re not going to get state funding and the economy is going to be soft and therefore revenues are going to be soft, we’re going to have to look at cutting expenses.”
Friberg said, “What we may do is skinny on some of the more expensive shows we have. In terms of range of product offerings, the quality of the offerings, that won’t change.”
Redden said cutting expenses shouldn’t change “the scope” of the festival or the number of offerings. The festival may look for shows with cheaper performance fees and possibly fewer costume changes.
From beginning to end, Monkey used elaborate sets, lighting and performances that relied on timing and scale for effect.
At one point, a giant mechanical hand came out of the curtain to trap the main character. The last set features a towering Buddah statue as the centerpiece in a jungle, mountain setting.
Even when the stage was more sparsely used, there were typically 10 or 20 performers doing complicated acrobatic stunts that relied on precise timing. Nearly every scene took place with one or more performers suspended from wires inside the Sottile Theatre.
With 19 performances, Monkey sold 15,100 tickets, just 100 less than what was available.
“If we wanted to do something like that again next year, I suspect we could,” Friberg said. “The question would be do we want to do that kind of thing again? You’d want to have corporate and other sponsors lined up just for that.”
Scott Miller is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at smiller@scbiznews.com.
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