Despite scaled-back funding and an uncertain future, the main organizer behind last week’s Free State Film Festival said she’s happy with the turnout of this year’s smaller event.

“I’d say we exceeded our expectations,” Marlo Angell, the festival’s artistic director, said of the 2017 Free State Film Festival, which ended its six-day run last Sunday.

Angell estimates about 2,500 to 3,000 people attended this year’s programming. That’s a significant dip from last year’s Free State Festival, which brought upwards of 12,000 people to downtown Lawrence. But Angell cautions against comparing the two — “numbers don’t tell the whole story,” she said.

Last fall, organizers decided to cancel the 2017 Free State Festival over budget shortfalls. The loss of $60,000 in potential city grants, which also resulted in some uncertain or scaled-back support from sponsors, was a major factor in that decision.

The 2016 festival received $75,500 in city funding, all from the city’s transient guest tax fund. But later that year, the city decided to cap requests at $15,000 with the goal of distributing funds more evenly and encouraging events to become self-sustaining.

This year, with limited funding, there was a concerted effort to return to the Free State Festival’s roots as a small film festival. That’s why the 2017 programming was officially called the Free State Film Festival, Angell said, with an increased emphasis on movies compared to recent years.

“It created a real opportunity to focus on the programming — to make sure everything was connected, and you’re providing audiences with a weeklong journey,” Angell, who also serves as director of new media at the Lawrence Arts Center, said of this year’s festival. “I thought it was a real opportunity to think of it as a whole, rather than separate events.”

The theme of this year’s festival was activism, Angell said, reflected in the interrelated film screenings, performances and panels taking place at the Lawrence Arts Center and throughout downtown last week. One of the biggest hits, she said, was June 29’s Chicano Batman concert at the Arts Center. Tickets for the performance also included admission to that evening’s screening of “Dolores,” the 2017 documentary about pioneering labor activist Dolores Huerta.

The Lawrence Arts Center’s theater hit capacity at 270 for the concert and screening, Angell said.

“We had a father and son who’d driven four hours to go to the concert,” she said.

Comedian Nikki Glaser’s stand-up show on June 28, which was paired with a free “Women in Comedy” talk earlier that evening, also drew a capacity crowd to the Arts Center. Other events, including satirist and activist Barry Crimmins’ one-man show on June 30, attracted around 200 people each, Angell said. In general, she said, “I think we had really full houses for most of our programming.”

Reflecting on this year’s comparatively smaller event, Angell said she’s encouraged by the enthusiasm of local businesses and partners who wanted to pitch in. Some, such as The Burger Stand, offered discounts to patrons who hung onto festival ticket stubs after shows. Others, such as The Merc, provided snacks to moviegoers at Arts Center screenings.

“It really did feel like the community came together and became invested in this,” Angell said.

Still, Angell said she’s not sure what next year’s festival will look like, if it will happen at all. Organizers have secured a $50,000 grant in partnership with the city to fund the festival in 2018, though they’re still trying to determine how everything will work, Angell said.

Last fall, organizers said they planned to develop a strategy that would make the Free State Festival more sustainable. At the time, that plan included looking for a presenting sponsor, growing the festival’s ticket sales and securing more private donations, with the intention of returning in 2018.

The Free State Festival began as a small independent film festival in 2011, but has in recent years expanded to include panels, concerts, stage performances and art installations.

For now, “the Arts Center’s just determining how best to move forward,” Angell said.