Adelaide Fringe appoints new chair Kate Costello
Preparations for next year’s Adelaide Fringe are well underway, and the festival’s new chair is hoping it will weather the COVID-19 storm and entertain the state as it emerges from the crisis.
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A push to lure more visitors from interstate and New Zealand is being developed in preparation for next year’s Adelaide Fringe, led by a refreshed board headed by new chair Kate Costello.
Ms Costello, who joined as a director at the start of the year, takes the reins on Tuesday, replacing David Minear who has overseen the event’s massive growth over the past six years.
After selling her consulting business Governance Matters in 2017, Ms Costello has continued to serve on a range of corporate, government and not-for-profit boards, and currently chairs ASX-listed biotech company LBT Innovations.
She said plans to implement a long-term strategy for Adelaide Fringe had been put on the back-burner following the COVID-19 outbreak, with attention turned to delivering a “memorable and successful” event amid the uncertainty created by the health crisis.
“We would love to be optimistic but we have to plan for the worst,” she said.
“We’re working very closely with SA Health to make sure next year’s Fringe can be rolled out in a safe COVID environment.
“We’ve also recognised that there is an opportunity to really push to make the Fringe a truly Australian event, and we’re keeping a close eye on New Zealand as well and the opportunity to make a real pitch to New Zealand.”
This week, Ms Costello and Mr Minear will meet with Premier Steven Marshall in a bid to secure an extra $850,000 in funding to reduce registration and ticketing fees for struggling artists.
The State Government currently chips in a little more than $2 million annually to the festival.
Other measures put in place in the wake of COVID-19 include extending the deadline for artist registrations and introducing a First Nations Collaboration Grant to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.
“What we’ve found is that a lot of artists have lost their livelihoods this year and we’re doing what we can to help them come back to the Fringe in 2021,” Ms Costello said.
“Normally we would have about 20 per cent of artists being international, and interestingly we’re getting contacted by quite a few who want to come next year so we’re looking at things like possible quarantine arrangements where they could go onto other events in Australia.”
This year’s Fringe attracted more than 32,000 interstate and international visitors, and delivered a record $96.7 million in gross economic expenditure, up from $66.3 million in 2014 when Mr Minear took the reins.
Box-office revenue reached $21 million this year from 853,419 tickets sold – up 3 per cent on 2019 – cementing the event’s position as the highest-selling arts festival in Australia and the second largest fringe event in the world after Edinburgh in Scotland.
Mr Minear said he was proud to have contributed to the festival’s growth in recent years, but said it was the right time to hand over the reins.
“I am a strong believer in Board rejuvenation - this is particularly relevant to a major entertainment and arts event like Adelaide Fringe,” he said.
“It’s important that the creativity of Fringe continues to change and evolve.”
While Ms Costello has seen most of the major Fringe acts over the years, her highlight was last year’s lesser known comedy act Grumpy Pants.
“He’s from Seville and my grandson absolutely loved it,” she said.