Helen Burnet
Ensuring fairer revenue sources is critical for Council to consider in 2009. The following are ways which could ensure the Taste Festival has a bright future. • Reviewing stallholders’ fees. • Strengthening and pursuing sponsorship deals. • Securing state government funding. The state government is an obvious winner from the Taste Festival because of the additional boost to the state’s economy and the reflected glory in Council’s hard work. It is time that they contributed more substantially, beyond their in-kind loan of the shed. • Approaching the federal government for assistance. • Introducing surcharges for visitors to the Taste.
Tips for the Taste’s Survival

2008/9 has been the 20th year for the Hobart Summer Festival’s Taste of Tasmania. Recently relabelled the Taste Festival, the new direction has proved a big hit with the 30 000 visitors on the first day, and many more on subsequent days.

This year’s festival has been bigger and better, with new culinary, visual and aural sensations, through cinema, live footage of food prep and docos on youchew, live music and entertainment, and of course the best food, wine and beer Tassie has to offer. It also showcased innovative ways of reducing the festival’s carbon footprint, following in the Taste’s tradition of clean and green.

The new Taste director’s innovation, experience, enthusiasm and energy have created arguably one of the best summer festivals on the planet. The hard-working Taste team, have spent most of the year getting to the point of delivering a value-added festival experience.

Some of the general change in direction to the Summer Festival was suggested in a report on Hobart’s Summer Festival commissioned by the Council in 2006, undertaken by local consultancy redinca. The suggestions from the report for sustainability into the future included a greater emphasis on the arts, the use of the river and surrounds, offering ticketed events, and securing income streams.

This last point is critical for the festival’s survival.

Over $600,000 of ratepayers’ money was set aside for the Taste Festival in the 08/09 budget. This does not include the revenue from sponsors and stallholders’ fees, making the total Taste Festival budget substantial – over $1m is big money for a local government authority to put up.

Apart from the use of the shed and the apron for 3 weeks, not one brass razoo is contributed to the Taste Festival by the state government. Recent overtures from the Premier about keeping the Princes Wharf No. 1 shed as the site for the Taste have been welcome, but more financial support is required to ensure the future of the event.

A large proportion of Council’s budgeted money goes into making PW1 the Taste’s home for a week. In the 3 weeks leading up to the Taste Festival, the Events team works very hard to prepare the shed and surrounds.
Substantial temporary infrastructure transforms a shed into fully functioning caterers’ kitchens – gas is reticulated to the site, temporary sinks, hand basins and liquid waste collectors are plumbed in, and electrical cables for PA, emergency evacuation systems and lighting are laid.

If and when the shed becomes the permanent home of the Taste, then of course these costs will come down. But that is not yet a reality and will be some way into the future.

It is an important contribution that the Council makes to the Hobart calendar to put on a great party with many talented foodies and performers and a showcase of Tasmanian and interstate acts and displays. But we have reached the point where there has to be some capacity to get closer to breaking even than a model based on ever-increasing costs.

In my view to continue along the same path is not economically sustainable. Not for the Taste, nor for the Hobart community in general. This becomes more acute with the potential repercussions from the global financial crisis.

Ensuring fairer revenue sources is critical for Council to consider in 2009. The following are ways which could ensure the Taste Festival has a bright future.

• Reviewing stallholders’ fees
• Strengthening and pursuing sponsorship deals
• Securing state government funding. The state government is an obvious winner from the Taste Festival because of the additional boost to the state’s economy and the reflected glory in Council’s hard work. It is time that they contributed more substantially, beyond their in-kind loan of the shed.
• Approaching the federal government for assistance
• Introducing surcharges for visitors to the Taste.

The last point is in response to the question: should the ratepayers have to foot the bill for something many of them don’t directly benefit from? Most Hobartians do not go to the Taste Festival and most people who attend are from interstate or out of town

Does securing the future of the Taste warrant the consideration of entry fees? Surcharges are not new. All over the world, festival organisers charge fees, and festivals thrive. Oyster cards, festival money and entrance fees are some of the means used by festival organisers to secure income. To be able to deliver up this event of continuing high calibre is not something I believe the Council can afford, unless we improve the revenue streams.

There are also other impacts to consider. Council’s Community Development Unit has responsibility for delivery of the Taste Festival, the Christmas Pageant and the Carols by the Bay. It also has responsibility for distributing money in community and arts grants and the delivery of youth and aged care services, mainly through YouthArc and the 50 and Better Centre.

We don’t know what the impact of the global financial crisis will be on the Tasmanian community, but my bet is there is likely to be some significant need for more spending in youth and aged services, either directly by Council or from assistance to non-government organisations.

Ensuring that the Taste Festival can be financially sustainable should not be at the expense of appropriate levels of community services for the people of Hobart.

The challenge for 2009 is this: we as a Council will have to skilfully deal with this economic balancing act for next year’s Taste Festival – and quickly.

Helen Burnet is a Greens Alderman on Hobart City Council. She is a member of the Tourism and Festivals sub-Committee, which oversees the Taste Festival, and the Community Development Committee of the Council.