The Small Festival Insurance Plan
Donation protected
The idea of setting up a festival insurance plan was born out of the fragile and tenuous nature of all small community based festivals and the inherent risks of a catastrophic natural event or act of god financially crippling the organization and its ability to continue forward. In an effort to ensure the continued viability of our rich and vibrant festival community and to help provide an added level of financial stability and security, festivals from across BC and Alberta are coming together to build a festival endowment fund. The fund will be created through the collection of a surcharge added to each of the participating festivals ticket price and will be administered each year through an elected board of representatives of the participating festivals.
If one of the festivals is confronted with a financial disaster due to an act of nature or a catastrophic event beyond their control and facing financial ruin they can apply to the fund to ensure that they are able to meet most if not all their financial obligations allowing them the ability to move forward rather than folding up the tents and going away. We are all vulnerable to weather, forest fires and who knows what else and by the time the decision to pull the plug is made the money has already been spent and we are beyond the point of no return. Its a risk we all take, but this fund would provide something of a safety net, enough at least that would allow a festival to continue even when faced with crippling debt brought on but circumstances beyond anyone’s control.
That being said this is not a fund to help bailout a festival whose losses are due to poor planning, excessive spending, or bad programming and each application for financial assistance will be judged by a panel of its peers elected each fall at a regional gathering of festivals. In the event there is a surplus of funds the jury can elect to invest those funds into an endowment that can provide infrastructure grants to the participating festivals, professional development opportunities to the festival community through the hosting of workshops and conferences or the purchase of much needed items and resources that can be shared amongst the festival community such as generators, tents etc…
In my original plan the contribution to the “Festival Fund” would be done as a service fee added to the ticket price. That way it’s a user based fee, separate from the ticket revenue and is open and transparent and easily accountable for each festival to submit their annual portion as it’s based on gross ticket sales, which are known and reported. Making it a fair system across the board as the fee is ultimately paid by the festival attendee, but more importantly its clean and easily accountable and the larger the festival the larger the contribution.
The funds would be set up in an independent account and every spring a jury made up of representatives of the participating festivals would be nominated to over see the account and evaluate any and all applications to the fund.
In a perfect world no one will suffer any great hardships and we will all continue as we have been, but feeling a little less vulnerable due to this added safety net. In that case I would love the see the excess funds used to build an endowment which would allow for the future awarding of grants to the participating festival community and provide funds for things such as an annual conference were we can all gather for professional development opportunities and exchange knowledge and resources. In addition we could dedicate a small portion each year to provide seed money to help new festivals through their first year.
I realize there is far more to this than outlined above and it all depends on the collective will of our festival community who combined will develop and construct the terms of reference and organizational structure by which we will all operate. From my standpoint I see the greater benefit outweighs the challenge of setting up the framework and its something we can do that will directly impact each and everyone of us at some point and could provide a model for other groups to take on and develop greater self reliance and security in these uncertain times.
If one of the festivals is confronted with a financial disaster due to an act of nature or a catastrophic event beyond their control and facing financial ruin they can apply to the fund to ensure that they are able to meet most if not all their financial obligations allowing them the ability to move forward rather than folding up the tents and going away. We are all vulnerable to weather, forest fires and who knows what else and by the time the decision to pull the plug is made the money has already been spent and we are beyond the point of no return. Its a risk we all take, but this fund would provide something of a safety net, enough at least that would allow a festival to continue even when faced with crippling debt brought on but circumstances beyond anyone’s control.
That being said this is not a fund to help bailout a festival whose losses are due to poor planning, excessive spending, or bad programming and each application for financial assistance will be judged by a panel of its peers elected each fall at a regional gathering of festivals. In the event there is a surplus of funds the jury can elect to invest those funds into an endowment that can provide infrastructure grants to the participating festivals, professional development opportunities to the festival community through the hosting of workshops and conferences or the purchase of much needed items and resources that can be shared amongst the festival community such as generators, tents etc…
In my original plan the contribution to the “Festival Fund” would be done as a service fee added to the ticket price. That way it’s a user based fee, separate from the ticket revenue and is open and transparent and easily accountable for each festival to submit their annual portion as it’s based on gross ticket sales, which are known and reported. Making it a fair system across the board as the fee is ultimately paid by the festival attendee, but more importantly its clean and easily accountable and the larger the festival the larger the contribution.
The funds would be set up in an independent account and every spring a jury made up of representatives of the participating festivals would be nominated to over see the account and evaluate any and all applications to the fund.
In a perfect world no one will suffer any great hardships and we will all continue as we have been, but feeling a little less vulnerable due to this added safety net. In that case I would love the see the excess funds used to build an endowment which would allow for the future awarding of grants to the participating festival community and provide funds for things such as an annual conference were we can all gather for professional development opportunities and exchange knowledge and resources. In addition we could dedicate a small portion each year to provide seed money to help new festivals through their first year.
I realize there is far more to this than outlined above and it all depends on the collective will of our festival community who combined will develop and construct the terms of reference and organizational structure by which we will all operate. From my standpoint I see the greater benefit outweighs the challenge of setting up the framework and its something we can do that will directly impact each and everyone of us at some point and could provide a model for other groups to take on and develop greater self reliance and security in these uncertain times.
Organizer
Chantel Evers
Organizer
Grand Forks, BC
