Some things, like the universe, have great staying power, but it’s worth remembering that nothing lasts for ever.
For instance, who would have thought that a couple of performers and an art exhibition in the Maude St Mall would grow into a multi-event arts festival and still be here 28 years later?
This year’s Shepparton Festival program kicks off on Friday, April 5, at Shepparton Showgrounds, with events running all day until 7pm.
If making headbands out of flowers, producing magazines, dancing, learning to juggle, playing the ukulele or listening to jazz music with a glass of wine is your thing, then the showgrounds is the place to be this Friday. You might just catch your friend’s uncle, the couple up the street, your grandchildren or those people you only see once a year at festival events, or even, God forbid, somebody new — it’s that sort of thing.
The following two weeks see more of the same, but bigger and broader, with exhibitions, music, performances and food events spread across Greater Shepparton.
The festival has always been a ground-up event run by Shepparton people who want to keep this city on the cultural map as an exciting and inspiring place to live and work.
However, festivals cannot just run on people’s power. Funding is needed to pay for artists, infrastructure, advertising, insurance and a whole lot of other boring but important things.
Our city’s annual festival has been fortunate over the years in being well supported by a combination of corporate, state and philanthropic funding and private donations. These bodies and individuals do this because they see the deep value in bringing people together in a non-tribal or competitive way to celebrate what we all have in common — our creativity and our humanity.
So, festivals have been community gold for a long time. But is that still the case?
The Wangaratta Jazz Festival ran for 33 years before the plug was finally pulled in September last year. COVID-19, floods, volunteer exhaustion and a funding reduction were to blame.
Other music festivals have also disappeared.
Groovin The Moo, Falls Festival and Hobart’s Dark Mofo have all either quietly faded or been loudly cancelled, such as Byron Bay’s iconic Splendour in the Grass.
Closer to home, the long-running biennial Castlemaine State Festival has been placed in voluntary administration after big losses from this year’s event. The festival board cited lower ticket sales and diminishing audiences despite funding support from state and private bodies.
Last year’s Grounded Live at Dookie Quarry struggled to sell tickets to capacity despite previous music events at the site being hugely popular. Organiser Jamie Lea put a call out on social media this week for people to talk to her about their consumption of live music.
What’s going on? Is this a sign of changing times and tastes or is something even deeper happening?
The most obvious changes would involve rising overheads, funding contractions, unpredictable weather events and that big bogeyman — the rising cost of living.
When people have to choose between paying the mortgage or buying tickets to a concert, there really is no contest.
But are people fundamentally changing the way they consume art, music and live events? Perhaps on a national scale, streaming platforms, the cost of living and corporations controlling ticket sales are having an effect.
However, on a local level, I still believe people want to gather to enjoy the arts with like-minded folk.
But this is where the universe steps in — nothing is certain. A chat with Shepparton Festival director Kristen Retallick this week revealed the festival’s three-year funding agreement with its major partner, Creative Victoria, ends next year. After that, to use a sporting analogy, the ball is in the air.
Ms Retallick, her small team and the festival board have once again delivered an exciting program of events — many of them free or heavily subsidised, thanks to the generosity of sponsors.
But the firmest pillar of support for the Shepparton Festival must be our community and its ongoing commitment to enjoy creative, engaging and inspiring public events — together.
This year’s Shepparton Festival will be a litmus test for just how strong that commitment is.
For the full list of festival events, go to sheppartonfestival.org.au