JUGGLING ACT
Why has the Christchurch City Council struggled to establish successful and enduring events in the city? Charlie Gates investigates.
Just a few days before Christmas in 2008, Christchurch city councillors went on a spending spree.
They spent nearly $1 million purchasing the World Buskers Festival for a reported $400,000 and a large inflatable dome for $480,000.
It was part of a bold and controversial strategy led by then mayor Bob Parker for council to develop major events in Christchurch. The Antarctic Festival, which became IceFest in 2012, had started in 2006. In 2009, the centrepiece of the new events strategy came when the council purchased the Ellerslie Flower Show for $3m.
Since then, all three festivals have been beset with troubles.
The Ellerslie Flower Show lost about $700,000 over five events and was then scrapped, IceFest was dropped in 2015 after funding problems and poor feedback, and the World Buskers Festival is under review after losing $275,000 over the last two years.
But why has the city council struggled to establish successful and enduring events in Christchurch?
Event experts say it is a risky, expensive and competitive industry that requires entrepreneurial skills that public bodies often don’t possess.
‘‘At council, they spend money, they don’t bring it in,’’ said one expert, who did not want to be named.
‘‘It’s all about money. You find sponsors and control cost. It is all about money and their bums aren’t on the line.’’
Council head of recreation, sports and events John Filsell agrees. He said the council was not best placed to produce major events and the failure of Ellerslie Flower Show prompted restructuring.
‘‘There were always a number of opinions on who was the best agency to do this. Is council best placed to do this?’’
‘‘We can assume this was given a lot of thought and council has changed its approach. You can draw conclusions from that.’’
ChristchurchNZ was formed in July in a merger between the Canterbury Development Corporation, Christchurch and Canterbury Tourism, and the council’s events unit.
Filsell said the new structure would mean council could focus on community festivals, while ChristchurchNZ would handle major events like international sporting fixtures and New Zealand Cup and Show Week.
‘‘The council will play to its strengths and not try to play in areas that maybe we are not the best at.’’
The new body is reviewing the World Buskers Festival and will make recommendations to council on its future early next year.
ChristchurchNZ chief executive Joanna Norris said the new organisation would help the private sector host major events in the city. ‘‘Christchurch has, in comparison to other cities, been dependent on local government to deliver events because the sector here is in its infancy. As a consequence, there has been a reasonably weak portfolio of events.
‘‘It has been a piecemeal approach at times,’’ she said.
‘‘ChristchurchNZ is not going to take an entirely ownershipbased approach to events. We want to facilitate a much wider events sector and not rely on the public sector to put on events.’’
Norris said ChristchurchNZ would help mitigate risks for the private sector by making traffic management easy, providing an overview of the city’s event calendar to avoid date clashes and help with marketing.
‘‘We want to make sure the conditions are right in Christchurch to put on events,’’ she said.
‘‘I am really optimistic about the future of major events in Christchurch.’’
Organising events and festivals in Christchurch is very risky, says Adam Hayward, who ran the Body Festival for 13 years in Christchurch until it closed in 2015 due to funding issues. He said event organisers should not bank on selling any more than 40 per cent of their tickets.
‘‘You have to be very cautious in New Zealand,’’ he said.
‘‘Don’t base your model on anything more than 40 per cent. Your break even point will never be on 100 per cent box office unless it is an absolute cash cow like Lady Gaga in a 300-seater.’’
He also said event managers should never be complacent.
‘‘You can’t constantly go back to your funders with your cap in your hand saying we lost money again. They will start to realise that maybe it is not working.’’
‘‘Events need to have a good long look at themselves and not assume that, just because they have been going on for years, they will just carry on.’’
The risks are clear even for well established cultural events in the city. The Christchurch Arts Festival this year sold 9000 fewer tickets than the previous event in 2015. It sold 20,000 tickets in 2017, compared to 29,000 in 2015 and 31,000 in 2013.
Event director Craig Cooper said ticket sales may have been impacted by their event clashing with Cirque du Soleil’s Avatar themed show taking residence in the Horncastle Arena for nine nights.
‘‘The market was very competitive this year with a very busy event calendar in Christchurch in September. Cirque du Soleil was particularly unfortunate timing.’’
Festival trust chair Jane Gregg said they budgeted for lower attendance this year and covered the shortfall from reserves.
‘‘The market is more crowded and it is a different playing field to previous runs. There are more events coming back and more competition and bigger shows coming from overseas. The dollar that people have to spend on entertainment is being stretched in different ways.’’
The Christchurch Arts Festival is no stranger to hardship. In 2009, the event racked up reported debts of $500,000. It was rescued with a $300,000 loan and a one-off grant of $177,000 from the Christchurch City Council, and $150,000 from Creative New Zealand.
The World Buskers Festival has also struggled in the last two years, despite enjoying nearly 25 successful years in the city.
The festival lost $115,000 in 2016 after stormy weather disrupted five of the event’s 10 days. In 2017, the event lost $160,000 due to venue problems and poor ticket sales. The 2017 losses were covered by council.
Event experts are privately shocked the festival lost so much money this year. The line up of acts was strong and fine weather ensured that performances were not disrupted.
‘‘It is unbelievable they have lost money,’’ said one industry insider.
‘‘There is no reason why it shouldn’t be making money.’’
People close to the situation said the transfer of knowledge from festival founder Jodi Wright to the festival trust was mishandled. When Wright sold the festival to council in 2008 the plan was for her to transfer her knowledge to council before stepping back.
But one person close to the situation said this did not happen smoothly after the festival trust took full control from council in 2013. The trust did not follow Wright’s cautious business model for the event, they said.
‘‘They didn’t realise the depth of her relationships around the world on this stuff. They were more focused on ambitious growth plans rather than careful budgeting and cost control.’’
‘‘It was her baby and she didn’t want to see it go down the gurgler.’’
Former festival trustee Beth Dunn, who left in 2016, said Wright’s departure meant the festival could evolve.
‘‘Everybody had to learn to operate without her. It provided a perfect opportunity for change. This is how we have done it in the past, but are there better ways of doing it?’’
Both Wright and the World Buskers Festival declined to comment.
Cr Raf Manji has long believed the festival should be scaled back.
‘‘I have always felt the buskers became too big and got away from its roots. It has become a little bit samey. You can go to any city and you can get the same kind of event,’’ he says.
‘‘I think they need to move away from the model where you spend a lot of money bringing acts in that quite often would come on their own.’’
‘‘The fun of the festival is buskers doing stuff outdoors. It has always been a popular event, but the question is the scale. The review will look at that.’’
‘‘I have always felt the buskers became too big and got away from its roots.’’
Cr Raf Manji