This Journal-World file photo shows a large crowd filling the 900 block of New Hampshire Street for a free concert by Public Enemy as part of the Free State Festival on Saturday night, June 25, 2016.

This year’s Free State Festival brought performers ranging from country star Kris Kristofferson to comedian Maria Bamford to Lawrence, but organizers say recent changes to how the city funds events may cause the festival to scale back.

A cap placed on funding requests will amount to at least a $60,000 decrease in city funding for next year’s festival, said Kimberly Williams, the CEO of the Lawrence Arts Center, which puts on the event.

“If the funding doesn’t happen, then we have to figure out, do we cut other programs in order to keep this one alive? Do we shrink the festival?” Williams said.

Last year, the festival received $75,500 of city funding, all proceeds from the transient guest tax fund. That amount included $30,000 from the city’s budget, $30,000 from Lawrence’s convention and visitors bureau and $15,500 from the guest tax grant program.

A new approach

In contrast to that scattered approach, the city’s target is to channel all event funding requests through the grant program. City leaders say it will offer a fairer way to distribute money from the city’s transient guest tax fund, which is collected through a special sales tax charged on hotel rooms.

“I think that that was part of the challenge, is that people were coming to the (City) Commission at different times for different events, and this allows us to put it all into a structure that’s fair for everybody,” said Porter Arneill, the arts and culture director for the city.

New rules adopted for the program will also put a $15,000 cap on each request, which is 10 percent of the program’s overall pool of $150,000. In regards to the cap, City Commissioner Matthew Herbert said that the goal was two-fold: to increase the total number of events the program can fund, and to encourage the events to become self-sustaining over time.

“The idea was by putting a cap on the amount you could ask for, it does put a little bit of pressure on the event to go get its own private donors, to get its own funding sources,” said Herbert, who also serves on the grant program’s advisory board. “That way we know that the transient guest tax fund is supplementing, but not being the lifeblood of, events.”

Funding decisions

The Free State Festival began as a small independent film festival in 2011, but has since expanded to include panels, concerts, stage performances and art installations. It’s estimated that the 2016 festival attracted approximately 12,000 audience members and 850 hotel room stays. Although Williams said she supported the concept of funding a variety of events, she thinks multiple criteria should go into deciding how much each event receives.

“I understand the allocation of $15,000, spreading it among a variety of groups,” Williams said. “But it’s sort of like in venture capital. If I have 10 deals walk in the door, I’m not simply going to distribute it equitably. I’m really going to look at the projects that seem to have the greatest merit and the greatest sustainability.”

This year, 24 events requested funding from the guest tax grant program. Eight of those requests went completely unfunded — including opera, reggae and bluegrass shows — while others received less money than requested. The Free State Festival was one of four events that received more than $15,000. Herbert said that he understood that the festival is a huge draw, but that a one-week festival still needs to leave enough funding for a variety of events the rest of the year.

“I think it’s a little bit unreasonable to request that a huge chunk of a year’s worth of funding be put towards one event that takes place over one week,” Herbert said. “It’s nice that we’re able to fill hotel rooms that one week, but we have 51 other weeks throughout the year that our hoteliers would really like to keep their rooms full.”

Festival cuts

However, the limited city funding may mean the festival has to cut its programming by as much as half: from a six-day to a three- or four-day festival, according to festival director Sarah Bishop.

“We’re certainly considering a number of ways of structuring the festival to save money,” Bishop said, noting that moving the festival’s date to one during the school year to increase ticket sales from college students was another option.

The overall cost of the festival is about $310,000, and Bishop said in addition to money from existing sponsors, the festival is seeking outside grants. If enough money isn’t raised, Bishop said one thing that may end up having to go is the free outdoor concert.

This year, the festival brought hip-hop artists Public Enemy to town, turning out a crowd of about 7,500. Bishop said that the total cost of that event — paying for the artists, event staff and vendors — was about $80,000.

“The most expensive part of the festival and the thing that the city funds have really made possible in the past is the big outdoor free show,” Bishop said. “So our ability to do that is really pretty extensively hampered by (the) lack of funding from the city.”

The bigger picture

Williams also raised the question of whether the overall pool of $150,000 is adequate. She says for a town that she thinks has attempted to brand itself as an arts capital, it’s just not enough support.

“It’s too meager to actually make a difference, and this community wants to make a difference in its expression in arts and culture,” Williams said.

As far as the overall amount allocated toward the grant program, city leaders admitted that they would like to see it grow. Arneill said that economic impact calculations will be part of the analysis of the grant program going forward. He said he hoped that data will show that such events make substantial contributions to the city’s economy.

“By creating a structure, identifying a certain amount of money, my hope would be that maybe that amount will increase in time,” Arneill said. “…That kind of information can help us articulate a stronger argument in the future for increasing this type of funding, growing possibly new programs and also enhancing existing programs.”

The Transient Guest Tax Grant Program is currently accepting applications for 2017 events, and the deadline for submissions is Nov. 4. Recommendations from the program’s advisory board will be sent to the City Commission for consideration in December.