Arts fest wound up, assets donated

An arts festival which has been held in Christchurch for more than 50 years will not return after years of loss-making events.

The Christchurch Arts Festival Trust has been formally wound up and its assets transferred to Word, the Christchurch literary festival. It was the “end of an era,” chair Jane Gregg said. “There had been some great shows over the years.”

Recently, it was held every second year. After the earthquakes, it attracted sponsors eager to be associated with the creative juices of the rebuild, Gregg said. But that energy faltered and in 2017 the festival lost $300,000 and the 2019 version lost $385,000.

The trust survived with grants and loans but there were not enough resources for a 2021 festival. Covid had also decimated arts funding and sponsorship, she said. A 2023 festival was never seriously considered.

The festival’s $70,000 bank account, brand, legacy and two sheds full of gear such as lights had been transferred to Word.

“It is a sobering decision to have to make as a board,” said Gregg. However, it felt ike We “a really good decision” to support Word.

Vicki Blyth, chairperson of the Word board said it would not become a general arts festival. “Our kaupapa is a literary festival and we'll stay true to that.”

Former Word artistic director Rachael King had broadened the festival from books to a celebration of everything related to words including songs, Blyth said. That approach continued. “It's been a pretty tough few years for the arts ... a lot of organisations are struggling financially.”

Word and other southern hemisphere book festivals had struggled to bring international best-selling authors down under because of Covid. However, Word was not in trouble, there would be a festival next August and the staff were programming it, she said. “This gift ... will certainly help underpin our mahi for the next year. And we're really grateful to them for that,“Blyth said.

Word and the arts festival had collaborated for years, staging events in each other’s festivals and working together in other ways. People moved between the groups, including Steph Walker, who was general manager of the Arts Festival in 2010-12, and is now artistic director at Word. The former arts festival board was “excited” about Word 2024 and would be “enthusiastically attending”, Gregg said.