Kendal's Mintfest street festival under threat for 2012 (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Kendal's Mintfest street festival under threat for 2012
9:30am Thursday 3rd November 2011 in Cumbria news
FEARS: Julie Tait and Jan Shorrock believe the Mintfest’s future could be in doubt.
NEXT year’s Mintfest street festival could be under threat if thousands of pounds is not raised to plug a funding hole.
Organisers say elements of the mostly free town centre arts festival may have to be dropped in 2012 after a major funding source was lost.
The summer street extravaganza, which attracts up to 25 acts, traditionally marks the end of the annual Lakes Alive season. It costs more than £80,000 to stage — funding which was previously provided by the North West Regional Development Agency as part of a £250,000 sponsorship.
But the agency has now been axed, leaving Kendal Arts International desperately short of funds and leaving the town centre street entertainment most at risk of being cut. However, organisers believe the weekend-long street event could be kept intact through an online fundraising appeal.
Mintfest is the only arts festival in Cumbria to be featured in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, which will take place next month.
For every pound pledged by the public, it will be matched by cash from the Reed Foundation, a national charity, and other sources.
Jan Shorrock, marketing manager at Kendal Arts International, says a £20,000 public donation target has been set for the Mintfest appeal — which could rise to £40,000 with matched funding from Reed.
She said: “The street festival in Kendal is under threat if we don’t find the money. It would be a great shame because it is a very popular mostly free event, enjoyed by thousands of people.”
She is now urging South Lakelanders to pledge cash to the Big Give Christmas Challenge, which takes place on line from December 5-9.
To promote this and other fundraising endeavours, Kendal Arts International has launched a campaign urging the public: ‘Don’t let Mintfest 2012 be a mint with a hole!’
Kendal Arts International director Julie Tait said: “I would like people to realise that although we have been well supported in the past, we face funding challenges like every other arts organisation or festival.”
Comments(7)
Kent123
says...
6:29am Fri 4 Nov 11
http://wp.me/p16x9M-
rk
Kendmoor
says...
1:54pm Fri 4 Nov 11
Your blog puts people like me (sitting on the fence) lean far more towards Kendal Arts International's corner as you come off as someone who's has some sort of petty personal problem rather than any real complaint. If people feel the free public festival is worthy of a donation, they will..if not, they won't.
LinkedIn
says...
5:20pm Tue 8 Nov 11
From reading his website it would appear that there are 2 main concerns.
One, that the figures provided by Mintfest and Lakes Alive stating how much £ their events bring to the region are over stated. I doubt many would disagree that it must be a conflict of interest or at least bad practice that the person providing the figures (Mike Savage of ESRC Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change) is both a director of the company and the long-term partner of another director.
Secondly, that any private company that requests donations as though it were a charity should go through certain checks and balances to ensure the money is spent wisely. As it is a private limited company there is no public report so we can not be certain. Reading the above article one could easily be under the impression that the organisers are a charity when in fact they are a for-profit private company.
You're welcome to form your own opinions but I like the part where he cites his sources as there is legitimate reason for cautious concern.
Kendmoor
says...
12:51pm Wed 9 Nov 11
with regards to this article the argument that it brings funds to the region isn't in question at all and the call for funds is based on the fact that it is a mostly free festival enjoyed by many, for free.
your second point should certainly be taken into account as it should whenever donating money to a company or charity. But I stand by my original points.
LB1968
says...
2:04pm Thu 10 Nov 11
They are, however, limited by guarantee, not share capital. They are not allowed to distribute dividends to directors, nor are they allowed to make a profit and this will be laid out in their Memorandum and Articles of Association. If this were not the case, they would not be allowed to apply for funding from the Arts Council or many other sources which explicitly state the type of organisations they will support.
If you are a funded arts organisation, funders will pay you when a funding bid is successful or at agreed periods during a funding agreement. This takes no account of a company's year end so a company with a high level of cash in their bank account will most likely have received funding for its activity over the next few months. It won't be a "profit" from the previous year's activities because they are not allowed to make a profit. There are checks in place to ensure this is the case with funders requiring stringent reporting and copies of accounts.
Whether you approve of Lakes Alive or arts funding generally, surely it's better to have accurate facts to support your argument?
Kent123
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12:08pm Wed 23 Nov 11
http://www.3caonline
.com/2011/11/mintfes
t-just-to-clarify-th
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Kent123 says...
6:27am Fri 4 Nov 11
http://www.3caonline
.com/2011/11/mintfes
t-you-must-be-bloody
-joking/