KISS Arts Festival needs community support to help with this year’s event. Photo: Supplied.
KISS Arts Festival is facing a significant financial setback after losing nearly half its funding due to Kiama’s reclassification as a major city by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this year.
With the beloved festival no longer eligible for regional arts funding, organisers Dave Evans and Tamara Campbell are determined to keep the event free and are calling on the community to help reach their $20,000 target through a GoFundMe campaign.
Dave said he was aware Kiama’s status would be changed from town to city, but wasn’t aware of the ramifications, which meant losing access to regional funding from Festivals Australia, a source of 40 per cent of its budget
“We would have to apply for it each year and it’s by no means guaranteed either, but over the last few years we’ve managed to forge a relationship with Festivals Australia, who are the body that give the grant out,” he said.
“They’ve come to know our work, and we’ve come to know how they work.
“We’ve had three successful applications over three years with them, and each year has increased in size – as in the size of our offering, but also the size of their funding has gone up a little each year too.
“They were very happy with what we were doing. We were very happy with what they were doing.
“It seems such a shame that suddenly that is just cut off with nothing to replace it with – that’s the real issue.”
Dave said they had now sought out every eligible funding round they could apply for in preparation for the 25-27 October event without success due to competing against more well-established city companies.
“The reason why there is regional arts funding is because we have far fewer resources in what is essentially a regional town,” he said.
“The access to the arts in this region pales into insignificance when you compare it to something like Sydney, for instance, and that is what that funding is specifically for, is to try to promote arts and arts inclusion in regional areas.
“The major cities, they don’t necessarily have any more access to funds than we do, but they have a whole lot more access to infrastructure like theatres, cabaret venues, comedy venues, music venues, cinemas, arts centres, things like that which we just don’t have.”
He said while it had always been run as a free community event, they had considered turning it into a paid event in the past but chose not to.
“The main purpose for us doing this festival is to introduce a style and genre of festival entertainment to Kiama that it hasn’t really had before and probably wouldn’t have,” he said.
“I don’t know if it would work very well as a ticketed festival, just because it’s not a very well recognised or overly popular genre, so it’s not really a commercial genre in a lot of senses.”
Dave said what the festival did was introduce different art forms to people without the barrier of them having to pay.
“Apart from that, the logistics of charging for a festival are enormous,” he said.
Dave said with the festival spread along Black Beach, it would require fencing the entire area, manning gates, and introducing a security team, ticketing system and wristbands.
For now, the festival has continued to receive funding through Kiama Council, with new funding created this year to avoid it having to demonstrate its contribution to Kiama’s tourism, due to being primarily for Kiama residents as a way to give back.
“For this year, for the first year, we’ve gotten this funding via a different funding round, so we don’t have to prove we’re creating visitation,” he said.
Dave said they had also gained additional sponsorship from Kiama businesses and created the GoFundMe page.
“It’s just that we’ve been left in the lurch a little bit this year, but hopefully by next year we will have managed to get some funding from somewhere else,” he said.
“In the meantime, this GoFundMe is a one-off thing so we can raise money so we don’t lose money.
“We’ll go ahead with the festival. It’s going to happen.
“That’s really what it’s about, is trying to ensure we can continue the momentum that the festival has gained over 12 years and not vastly reduce the footprint and the offering we have.”
He said the festival had grown from only a few hundred in its first year to more than 20,000 people last year.
This October attendees can expect an aerial show collaboration between Fairy Meadow’s Circus Monoxide and Canberra-based Warehouse Circus, the Friday night cabaret being extended to a Saturday night show in a mini-Spiegel tent, lantern workshops and parade, and roving entertainers.
Dave said there was also a Holland entertainer doing the Crate Stack Challenge, where anyone could take part in building the highest pile of milk crates.
He said he wanted to thank Kiama Council and its long-term sponsors who had allowed the festival to run as long as it had.
To contribute to the GoFundMe, visit GoFundMe.
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