Venues won’t open fully until September
Perth Theatre and Perth Concert Hall will only fully reopen in September - at the earliest - if social distancing guidelines are lifted.
Councillors this week asked council leader Murray Lyle write to the Scottish Government requesting a route map to normality as to when performance venues can reopen.
Should both Perth venues not reopen by December, more jobs could be shed - on top of the 100 redundancies Horsecross has already made in the past year.
Horsecross Arts chief executive Nick Williams - responsible for both venues - told councillors they could not fully reopen without social distancing measures being removed.
He was providing an update to Perth and Kinross Council’s scrutiny committee on Wednesday, May 12.
Mr Williams said: “We think it will be at least September before we look at welcoming audiences back in a significant numbers and that depends on the social distancing review the first minister announced yesterday (Tuesday, May 11).
“If there is no change to that distancing then we quite simply cannot reopen because we will not be able to make it work economically.”
Head of finance Willie Anderson told councillors the organisation had received almost £1.6 million in COVID funding.
Horsecross’s reserves have improved from a previously “very negative position” of around £358,000 deficit in reserves into the positive with £765,783.
Mr Anderson said redundancies were “kept to a minimum”.
Horsecross retained 49 members (38.7 FTE) of staff and hope to recruit for around 30 full-time positions in the late summer if restrictions lift.
But the 2021/22 draft budget prompted concern.
The finance chief said: “The draft budget does not break even.”
Mr Anderson told councillors the budget was reviewed regularly and updated.
Perth City Centre Lib Dem councillor Liz Barrett asked if the deficit would increase from £241,000 to £271,000 if the theatre and concert hall were unable to open by December.
Mr Anderson said: “In simple terms that is right.
“I think if we were in that ‘doomsday position’ - for want of a better phrase - I think our board would be bound to take other actions to mitigate that.”
Councillors were told Horsecross relied largely on touring companies.
Mr Williams said: “The challenge for September is it should be on sale now and we have already seen much of that work that was planned for September either moved or cancelled altogether.
“Promoters are holding their nerve for October, November and the important Christmas season for the moment but have indicated to us that if we cannot in all honesty guarantee them the ability to fill our spaces by those times then they will withdraw the tours.”
The other big income generator for Horsecross is hosting conferences.
The Horsecross chief said organisations had “tentatively” booked hires for autumn.
Horsecross had been on course - prior to COVID - to securing almost £300,000 from hires.
However, audience test events are scheduled.
At the end of May there will be lunchtime live broadcast concerts aired on BBC Radio 3 with a limited audience.
Mr Williams said: “That will give us the chance to test out audience management.
“And we are hoping to do a mini festival on the plaza in July and August but that’s very dependent on fundraising.”