Dunedin Fringe Festival 2023 was thrown into doubt in September last year when Creative NZ (CNZ) declined their funding application. This year’s Fringe is set to go ahead, after a crowdfunding campaign and a great show of support from the community. Critic looks at what costs it took to send this year’s event ahead, and what cost we’ll pay if we lose our Fringe for good.
Unlike most, Dunedin’s Fringe is not just a phase. It’s an annual celebration of performance and art. Over eleven days, artists from all over the country (and some from abroad) bring their shows and exhibitions to venues across Ōtepoti. Theatre, stand-up, visual art and music only begin to cover the various mediums Fringe presents. All up, it’s a platform open to all experimental art practitioners, and with that comes artists from a rich collection of backgrounds and varying levels of experience in the performing arts industry.
The programme’s diversity also owes itself to Fringe being an “open-access registration” festival. Each year, the festival invites artists of any level of experience and from any discipline to pitch their work to be a part of the upcoming lineup. In addition to shows, there are interactive exhibitions and events as well as workshops in which the general public are invited to develop their own skills.
Fringe is the flagship event run by the Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust. Their other initiatives include Te Whare o Rukutia, a year-round community performing arts venue; the New Zealand Young Writers Festival (NZYWF), another annual event celebrating and developing the skills of young writers of all disciplines; and Amped Music Project, a mentorship programme for young local musicians. At its core, Dunedin Fringe and its initiatives are about supporting creatives who are, more often than not, local and emerging artists.
“It’s like a rite of passage into performance,” shares Bronwyn Wallace of Ōtepoti theatre company Late Bloomers. The company, herself and Marea Colombo, are both Otago Uni alumni – with Bronwyn having been involved since highschool. It was common in theatre studies to create and perform a show together at Fringe, which were often the first times artists would have this opportunity in their career. “It was also most likely the first time that you would make money in the arts which is a huge moment. You’ll be in your twenties like ‘what the fuck, you can make a living off this?’”
“It’s a stepping stone in Dunedin Performing Arts,” says Bronwyn, as well as for Late Bloomers itself. In the past two weeks, Late Bloomers have been up in Wellington performing their two original works at NZ Fringe, ‘Gaslight Me’ and ‘Flow’, both one-person shows performed by Marea. ‘Flow’ is being performed at Dunedin Fringe later this week. ‘Gaslight Me’ was performed in Dunedin Fringe last year where they were awarded the NZ Fringe Tour Ready Award which has allowed them to bring their original works to NZ Fringe. The awards are another cost for Fringe to add to the list, usually covered by sponsors but this year also coming from Fringe’s budget.
Bronwyn recognised the cut to Fringe’s funding as another blow to Dunedin’s performing arts community, made even more concerning when considered alongside Ōtepoti’s dwindling number of venues. Late Bloomers returned the support Dunedin Fringe had provided them across the years, attending the multiple hui Fringe organised for public consultation on the future of Fringe when news of funding cuts first broke. The hui, three in all, each individually sought input from local artists, performers and audience. Late Bloomers attended all three, shares Bronwyn: “We were so passionate about whatever we could do to support Fringe and put anything in writing to CNZ and higher bodies. We wanted to be incredibly supportive and let them know the level of impact they have, not just on us, but the whole of the city.”
Isla Thomas is another young creative whose involvement with Fringe has supported her creative practice and studies. Part of Dunedin Slam Collective, she became involved with Fringe in highschool with a multi-medium text and image exhibition, and throughout the years has been part of the festival as a performer, volunteer and as a judge. “The really unique and probably the most powerful thing about Fringe, for me, is that it’s ‘do it yourself’,” she says. “That was important because I felt not completely represented by school, or anyone else. The opportunity for self-representation and realising stuff, in a project form, was really cool.”
As a poet, Isla believes the connection that Fringe and its other initiatives provide between Ōtepoti and other cities in Aotearoa, is important for the writing community. “I’ve collaborated with people, and made a lot of friends, life-long friends. It’s given me a real avenue to test out my leadership skills and have a voice as a frustrated young person.” It was through Isla’s involvement with Fringe and NZYWF that the Fringe Arts Trust were able to support Isla, nominating her to attend the NZ Aspiring Leaders Forum. Isla also recognises the involvement the Dunedin Slam Collective has with Fringe as contributing to her successfully gaining a scholarship to study poetry at university. “I wouldn’t have studied at university in the way that I did if it wasn’t for the poetry [scholarship].”
Fringe itself doesn’t profit off ticket sales, instead allowing artists to retain their full cut. This means that they rely heavily on creative grants from a number of national and community organisations, as well as the support of sponsors. A major source is CNZ, who contributed about one-third of Fringe’s costs in previous years. So when CNZ declined funding for Dunedin Fringe in their latest annual art grant, it naturally cast doubt over the future of the festival.
Fortunately, Fringe were able to secure some funding from CNZ in their Arts Grant pool, a quarterly funding grant.
It’s rude to talk numbers, but in this case it’s crucial to Fringe’s most recent success. Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust’s unsuccessful application was for $150K. $115K of this was allocated to Fringe Fest. Their later application in the CNZ quarterly pool was for $75K and they were successful in being granted $65K. This was the first time they’d received a partial amount of their applied grant. Other major funding organisations include the DCC and Otago Community Trust.
The loss of funding was met by expressions of support from existing funding bodies. They also ran a successful crowdfunding campaign through Boosted, New Zealand’s only crowdfunding platform dedicated to the arts and run by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, passing their $12Kgoal and raising over $19K through this effort. “We were so grateful for that incredible support which gave us the confidence that people really wanted us to go ahead with the festival and felt that it was really important to the artists, to the performing arts, and Dunedin, to the future of those people’s careers,” says Ruth Harvey, one of two co-directors on the Fringe leadership team.
Unfortunately, being unable to make up the entire $115K needed for the festival, Fringe have had to dip into their reserves and are running at a financial deficit. This is unprecedented in Fringe’s recent history and they are very grateful to the out-going Fringe director, Gareth McMillan, in ensuring the trust had a healthy amount of money that could act as a buffer in the case that their grants were unsuccessful. “Fringe is our biggest program, our flagship, and it is what the trust exists to present,” Ruth says. “We felt that there's no better use of those reserves than going ahead with the thing that we are here for.” Committing to this year’s festival in the face of their financial loss upholds Fringe’s kaupapa, their commitment to the arts and artists, says Ruth. “Ultimately, we decided that after three very tough years for artists around the country and around the world, we couldn't not provide that platform for the artists that participate in Fringe. This Fringe is for them.”
65K may be a lot in terms of paying off your own student debt, but for a festival of Fringe’s nature, it’s only a fraction. Fringe’s 115K budget can be mainly split into: production, costs associated with running their venues and decking them out, marketing, promoting the event (as well as maintaining their online site and ticketing portal), and staffing. The crowd-boosted 19K has gone entirely towards artists grants and their contracted staff, with 75% to artists and 25% to staff. Kate Schrader, the creative co-director, explains that the artist’s grants are vital in supporting upcoming artists. “Often in this climate, especially for independent or emerging artists, they put a lot of their own time and money into getting these projects off the ground. That’s a lot of risk to take on, especially if you’re starting out and learning how to run a project, how to talk about your work and get people to come along to it.”
These artist grants, paired with receiving their ticket revenue in its entirety, give creatives confidence that their practice can become a financially sustainable career. For contracted staff, the running of Fringe becomes their full-time job in the months around the festival. When considering the salary for a team of four individuals must come from this budget, it is understandable that the budget is stretched by the funding blow, and this doesn’t even include the sound and light engineers contracted for the weeks only immediately around the festival.
Ensuring both their staff and performers are paid for their mahi is a crucial sign of respect and ultimately ensures that creatives are paid appropriately for their work. The nature of the creative industry, and our understanding of the arts culturally, often results in artists giving much more of their time and energy to their projects than they’re financially compensated for. Fringe’s commitment to their collaborators is an important step in amending these longstanding attitudes. At the same time, Fringe also relies on a large crew of volunteers and their goodwill is invaluable to supporting the artists.
Applications to perform in Fringe open in August. It wasn’t until October that Fringe discovered they’d been declined funding in CNZ’s annual arts round, and then later in December, that they’d been successful in their later application. “Our timelines were so compressed,” said Ruth, which were made even tighter by additional consultations as to whether it should go ahead, then the alternative arrangements to account for the cut. In previous years, the festival’s staff would be set in November. But this year they were contracted in December, and with the holiday season in the mix, they were only able to get to work in January. “It is a colossal superhuman [effort] from these incredibly tenacious and creative people to make Fringe 2023 happen.”
The cuts to Fringe fest, much like cutting your own bangs after an emotional breakdown, have been anxiety-inducing, for the Fringe Arts Trust and local creatives alike. The way the Fringe team has met adversity, shows just how deep their commitment is to supporting Ōtepoti’s artistic community. Fringe, as well as its other initiatives, are a crucial link for many local artists in their journey to allowing their practice to become their full-blown careers, all the while providing financial support and total compensation for their work. Dunedin Fringe is running from 16 March to 26 March. There is a vast array of shows, exhibitions and workshops to head along to and support artists from across the motu. You have the power to ensure the vitality of Ōtepoti’s creative community.