The Changing Face of Festivals

In the beginning.... Galarrwuy Yunupingu unveils the Barunga Statement painting in 1988

The start of the Dry across the Top End kicks off the festival season for Aboriginal communities but numbers are down and Barunga’s gone. What’s the way forward for these events? Apparently long term vision, smart business plans and good media coverage...

The start of the Dry across the Top End kicks off the festival season for Aboriginal communities, with tourists and locals alike eager to share in the riches of Aboriginal culture.

As well as being a chance for communities to put their best foot forward, festivals are also a significant money spinner.

However, so far this year festival visitor numbers have been down for a number of reasons, most of them to do with a general drop-off in tourist arrivals in the Northern Territory.

Already this has claimed its first victim, with the Barunga Festival cancelled for the first time in almost two decades. Organisers of this year’s Merrepen Festival at the Daly River community of Nauiyu Nambiyu have also confirmed that visitor numbers were down on last year.

But some observers claim there is more to the difficulties facing festival organisers than just the tight tourism market.

Paul Amarant, who has coordinated the last four Barunga festivals, says there is now a lot more competition between festivals for what is effectively the same pool of sponsorship money.

“To run a really good festival you need solid backing from sponsors,” he told Land Rights News. “There are a lot of demands from other events these days.”.

Paul Amarant

The Barunga Festival achieved national recognition in 1988 following then-Prime Minister Bob Hawke’s agreement to the Barunga Declaration, in which Wenton Rubuntja, Galarrwuy Yunupingu and other Indigenous leaders called for a Treaty between black and white Australia.

Many NLC staffers remember how difficult it was to find a good camping spot during the festival’s halcyon years, when literally thousands of visitors poured through the Barunga Communnity’s gates on the first weekend in June.

In the beginning Barunga ran on the goodwill of performers, who were pleased just to be performing in front of an Aboriginal audience. These days dancers and music acts charge a lot more money, far too much money for us to match.

Paul Amarant

Mr Amarant said it was not just other Aboriginal festivals that were taking more of the sponsorship dollar but also big-city spectacles such as the Arafura Games and the Aboriginal All Stars football match.

We must have sent out over 100 letters asking for support this year but not much was forthcoming. A majority of our council wanted the Festival to go ahead but decided in the end it would have been too financially irresponsible.
There are a lot of sad people around Barunga.

Paul Amarant

Performers at last year’s Garma Festival
Picture courtesy Yothu Yindi Foundation

So how do other festival organisers cope with the increased competition for the sponsorship and tourism dollar?

Garma Festival organiser Alan James said the Yothu Yindi Foundation realised early on that it needed to take a long-term view to capitalise on the undoubted potential of a festival celebrating Yolngu culture in remote north-east Arnhem Land.

We needed a business plan that was sustainable … we took a 10-year view and, now that we’re into our fifth year, we’re beginning to see the rewards.
Because we’re so remote and have to provide all the infrastructure on site, we can only host a limited number of guests in addition to Yolngu clan members.
It’s expensive to get here and so we have to aim for the top of the tourism market.
We also target sponsors in a strategic way with a different theme for each year’s Garma Forum. What most people wouldn’t realise is that we started planning for this year’s Forum two years ago.

Garma Festival organiser Alan James

Garma organisers also ensure good media coverage by organising media packages, the provision of satellite links and event updates on the festival’s dedicated website, while at the same time maintaining copyright control of all media material generated by the Festival.

“This gives us the sole right to generate income from such things as calendars, post cards and CD sales,” Mr James said.

Meng Hoeschle, Merrepen Arts Centre Coordinator and the organiser of the annual Merrepen Arts Festival, says the combination of an art auction and a concert featuring well-known acts (this year it was the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, the Baker Brothers and Nabarlek) serves to differentiate the Festival from its peers.

We were about a third down in terms of visitor numbers this year but we still attracted around 2,000 visitors and our art auction still went really well.

Meng Hoeschle, Merrepen Arts Centre Coordinator

Once again it appears to be the type of visitor that Merrepen attracts that makes the difference, with wealthier art lovers being more in evidence than budget-conscious backpackers.

“The sports carnival remains integral to the success of the Festival but, for the tourist market, it’s the art and the concert that makes the difference,” she said. “Another selling point is our no-alcohol policy.”

Merrepen also plans to step up its on-line marketing efforts, setting up a dedicated website which should be up and running by October.

The message in all this seems to be that the era of the amateur, grass-roots Aboriginal festival is coming to a close. In order to survive and prosper in this more competitive age, festivals need to plan carefully and market themselves strategically.