It was the first time I’ve seen the Queensland Folk Federation and Woodford Folk Festival Founder and Director, Bill Hauritz. Rather than the polished image exuding from his media photos, Bill looked just like any other festival goer but unlike many that are probably worn out already nearing the end of this almost-week long event, he was full of energy.

Much of the debrief centred around the core, central management of the festival. Budgets, sponsorships, and the like. While these may seem to be quiet ‘boring’, it provides a much needed context particularly near the end of this writeup. I have also included some of my thoughts in this debrief.

There will be a wrap up from my day’s visit at a future BCI entry.

Last year was a 20% drop in income due to the adverse weather and leaving more than $1 million in bills which was the start of a long and difficult process of organising the 2011/2012 Festival.

The capacity and length and breadth of the infrastructure, in terms of electricity, water, sewerage, roads, remains the same regardless as to whether the festival lasts for 6 days or a full year. The cost of implementing this is the same as implementing the infrastructure of a similar sized township, with Nambour being provided as an example. Councils have understood the issue and the huge investments that were required – despite the expertise crafted over the 17 years, there was still changing regulations in place summing up to legitimate concerns and with a serious cost to boot.

Councillor Allan Sutherland of the Moreton Bay Regional Council proposed to sell Woodfordia to council and then council can lease it back to the organisation. This meant an absolute guaranteed tenure of the site. And for extra safety, this is the ability to buy the property back at a contractual basis according to the valuation price of the site. This has been agreed for 25 years which provided not only control of the property but also guarantees that the next time the organisation hit into strife, instead of the bankers knocking on our door saying “we have your mortgage, give us our money”, we will have council knocking on the door saying “we have a vested interest in your festivals and Woodfordia – how can we help?”.

It is this story that has helped me frame that there is an immense passion to have a long term view of the festival, Woodfordia and for those involved.

The balance sheets of both organisations didn’t change. The guarantee that there is tenure at the Woodfordia site and with it, freedom and trust between the two parties to have a custodial view of looking after the site. And at the end of the 25 years, there is the intention to purchase back the site.

The Queensland Folk Federation were able to pay out the creditors within 90 days – which provided faith from their creditors. Something that would be helpful, seeing as putting the festival on would require $4 or $5 million worth of credit – something along the lines of half a million dollars worth of tents, probably $350-$400k for the cost of the PA. However, there was still the issue of cash flow for the next festival. The budget and cashflow reallocation to reduce expenditure for the Festival included retrenching staff members who have been with the Festival for as long as 15 years. Many of the staff, even after finding jobs, still came back to be involved in the 2011/2012 Festival either as a volunteer or as part of a temporary contract.

It wasn’t just the financial difficulties faced, Mother Nature and La Nina was out in force. In December 2010, Woodfordia received almost a metre of rain (the lightest during the Festival including a fine New Year’s Eve) with the heavy blow on 11 January 2011 flooding. There were over $1 million damage to the site, some of the damage due to the lack of infrastructure readiness for severe conditions such as flooding. Luckily there was a robust insurance involving a large insurance payout from QBE after an assessment of the damage from the storm run off.

In the few months after the floods, Woodfordia as not ready by the beginning of April which was set to be the start of the construction for The Dreaming festival. Rather than making a decision to cancel and default on contracts and commitments, the decision was made to honour the contracts for The Dreaming artists. The result was seeking some serious funding, including Santos sponsorship, and the decision to make The Dreaming a part of the Woodford Folk Festival. It was a different and a deliberately separate event with separate budgets, even a different construction culture. However, the site was ready to be hired out to Splendour In The Grass whose generous rent was a big contribution. The site was hired out to Splendour, a very different event but with a similar model (private enterprise event) and Hauritz congratulated the organisers for leaving the site spotless. Their rent for two years has been a really strong part of income for two years though it is uncertain if they will return next year. Splendour in the Grass is a festival like Woodford Folk Festival – in that it lives then dies by a number of punters that go through the gates.

Ticket sales of festivals around the world has had a severe drop. One of the major concerns for Woodford Folk Festival in 2011/2012 regarded poor ticket pre-sales – a 20% drop in fact. It is hard to pinpoint an exact cause though. Hauritz claimed that ticket sales of festivals around the world faced a two year drop due to black swan type events such as the world financial crisis and changing behaviours in consumer spending. I’ve heard of a couple of festivals that were cancelled in Australia and there’s a chance that this viewpoint may have been perpetuated by Splendour in the Grass 2011 who faced slower than expected ticket sales last year (see this statement at inthemix.com.au) but I would attribute this more to technical faults with Westpac and Moshtix rather than a concern that less people are interested in festivals. However, looking at the macro viewpoint of the global financial crisis festivals, I disagree with this point regarding festivals worldwide facing dire sales. Hauritz may have made a point regarding Glastonbury Festival (this year’s Festival will be axed due to the London 2012 Olympics and/or demands of hiring portaloos), but Edinburgh Fringe hit a record high in 2011 (via theguardian.co.uk) and the The Guardian Stage made a great point as to why festivals and events are here to stay. Is it because people have moved on beyond festivals and into something else? Is there an oversupply of festivals? Is this a one off event or a trend facing all festivals?

Woodford Folk Festival is not immune to the festival woes around the world in terms of ticket sales (this I think is worth a discussion). It is not a cheap festival to come to, but for those who’s ethos deliver value but value can’t be delivered if there are no festivallians to attend in the first place.

There is a chance, however, that this may be in danger. Despite a remarkable year, and the start of construction, there were still some controversial elements in December that made it a difficult one for the organisers – particularly for the Executive Director and for the Marketing team. A decision was made, almost 22 months ago, to accept a proposal that was put forward to Santos to help with The Dreaming with sponsorship to be spent on Aboriginal performers and artists. There has been a lot of noise made, particularly online and on social media, about coal seam gas and the dilemma of such a mining company offering support for, what many perceived was for Woodford Folk Festival. The environmental movement has been upset by the emergence of coal seam gas practices and, Hauritz added, “so are we”. The demands of this protest movement, moved forward by social media tools (Hauritz described it as “started by people on Facebook” which I think has gone beyond Facebook and into blogs, Twitter, news websites and much more) is well intentioned and had an environmental outcome that is very important, is many. One of the demands involved sending the money be sent back to Santos, a position in competition with the morals and principles of the Queensland Folk Federation in sending a general statement out that not only should the Aboriginal people give the money back and pay for the affluence derived from mining practices, but some of the money have already been spent and there is still the issue of holding on to and honour the contracts that are already in place with the Aboriginal artists and performers. To do so would create such a moral example out there broadly that we should not give money to Aboriginal people. A decision that morally, and in principle, the Queensland Folk Federation could not do, send that message out. It would have been the end of The Dreaming, the end of our engagement with the Aboriginal people. The protesters did not consult with the Indigenous owners about their protest, which had upset some. There is an abundance of ideas though. The QFF came up with the notion of putting together a taskforce of people passionate about the environment to determine what should be done with the sponsorship (submissions can be sent to taskforce@woodfordia.com). With calls to boycott the Festival, it was an emotional thing that hurt the marketing campaign . It has stretched on to during the festival which including some stall holders displaying Lock the Gate signage, brochures being handed out to festival goers from a dedicated stall. This type of dedication to the cause is not a surprise as the coal seam gas lobby, Lock the Gate, has roots with the Woodford Folk Festival (Post publish note: Lock the Gate was founded in Broke, New South Wales in November 2010)

The Commonwealth government honoured one of their election promises to provide money going towards projects that will be unseen (literally) but critical for Woodfordia to allow it to continue. Unlike last year though, the 2011/2012 festival faces the best festival weather in history, a positive outlook that was in question earlier last year.

I am currently in the middle of reading Richard Branson’s Screw Business As Usual where actions by companies that may traditionally be seen as only doing business as usual (ie doing business regardless of the environmental impact) are doing the turn around switching values from a total profit focus into leveraging a very powerful tool, business, to do good.

I personally have nothing against Santos sponsorship of events such as The Dreaming – very commonly confused with sponsorship for Woodford Folk Festival by the general public, including myself prior to this talk. Go beyond putting the absolutes into silos and working solely on that principle where the absolutely evil (company) should stay well away from something absolutely good. Take on a more collaborative approach. Advocate against business as usual and open yourself to when a company actually does something different to what their DNA supposedly should be.

We are at a very interesting time to discuss and openly look at these issues knowing full well that the practices that have been in place before may not be the best for the future.