Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival cancelled for 2024 as reserve funding dries up

Organisers of the popular Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival have cancelled the event in 2024 citing a harsh financial climate for events and depleted revenue.

Arts Inc Heretaunga interim board chair John Eaden emailed supporters this week to inform them the board had postponed the long-running event, which was scheduled to be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

Last year’s festival in October included national and international circus, music, dance and theatre acts, family events, visual arts, and literature. More than 30,000 people flocked to events.

Street party Nuit Blanche was one of the popular events at the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival.

The email said the board’s decision to cancel the anniversary festival was “incredibly difficult” but noted it would allow the organisation to enter a strategic and creative development period and return in 2025.

“Like many other arts organisations, Arts Inc Heretaunga has faced a challenging environment over the last three years.

“A deep commitment to our kaupapa means we continued to deliver stellar performances through Covid-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle via the beloved Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival, but this has impacted the organisation’s financial performance, and our reserves have been depleted.”

In 2023, Arts Inc Heretaunga said it sustained a $150,000 net financial loss, which ate into its reserves and compounded on the previous year’s decreased revenue through Covid-19 when the festival continued to deliver despite limitations.

The board noted many event-based businesses, funders and audiences were operating in difficult times. The decision to cancel considered other popular events and programmes run by the trust that needed to remain sustainable.

“As a charitable trust, whose main focus is delivery of community arts experiences, the board of Arts Inc Heretaunga must make credible, responsible and sustainable decisions that respond to the current reality and position of our entire organisation, which also comprises of The Blossom Parade, Hawke’s Bay Art Guide, Hawke’s Bay Art Trail and Hastings Community Arts Centre, for long-term success.

“The Blossom Parade, Hawke’s Bay Art Trail, and the Hastings Community Arts Centre will continue their invaluable work through 2024.”

The board and management were currently determining what the strategic reset entails and how it would affect audiences and the wider community.

“As soon as these decisions are finalised, we will be able to share more on the year ahead, and our 10th anniversary plans for 2025.”

Last year, standard tickets to most shows at the festival were on sale for $25 – half their usual cost.

360 Allstars performed at the Hawke's Bay Arts Festival in 2023. Photo / Matt Loncar

Festival director Pitsch Leiser said at the time: “The idea behind 2023′s festival is to bring us together in celebration of our community and to create as many opportunities as possible for people to be able to participate, take a break and find joy and happiness in the arts”.

Naomi Fergusson, Hastings District Council group manager marketing, communications and engagement, acknowledged it had been a challenging time for the region, and that the arts and events landscape had been hard hit in recent years.

“We are supporting the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival through this period of strategic development and endorse this prudent governance decision. We look forward to the 10th festival in 2025″.

Gretchen La Roche, senior manager of arts development services for core festival funder Creative New Zealand, said it was a “healthy and sensible approach” for any arts organisation to re-evaluate its role and purpose within its community.

“We support Arts Inc. Heretaunga’s decision to undertake this work.”

Separate from the arts festival, the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Trust confirmed it would still be holding the Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival, which is held around the same time in October.

The event, which will be held from October 18-20, is run by a volunteer board of trustees made up of bookstore owners, authors, librarians and educators.