David Penberthy: There’s a lot of blue-collar workers shelling out so that barristers can go to La Traviata

The bang SA gets for its festival bucks has been laid bare in a fascinating new report. And with V8s gone, the Fringe is our star of the show, writes David Penberthy.

Here are a couple of questions that should resonate in an artsy and fun-loving town like ours. What price do you put on art? And when it comes to our most successful festival, the Adelaide Fringe, why should South Australia have all the fun?

I have spent much of the past day reading a very interesting report by the good people at PwC into the performance of our beloved Fringe and its capacity for future growth.

The report goes a long way towards answering those questions. It also inadvertently addresses a third question – at a time when the V8 Supercars have been put to the sword, should the state government just throw money at new events? Or should it also look to maximise growth from existing ones?

The PwC report makes fascinating reading for those who doubt the capacity of art to generate jobs and economic activity. Or conversely to be nothing more than a drain on the public purse.

Interestingly, the report shows that, in SA, art has the capacity to do both of those things.

Being a cultural desert myself I am not that plugged in with the arts world. But I would imagine this report will cause quite the stir in artsy circles as it quite cheekily looks at every major arts event in SA that attracts taxpayer support and ranks them in order of economic benefit.

Bec Hoffmann with her children Harry, 9 and Lola, 7, check out the Illuminate Adelaide installation at Lot 14. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

While the authors are far too polite to name these other events, the Fringe blows all of them out of the water in terms of activity. For a minuscule taxpayer outlay of $2.4m the Fringe injected a whopping $31.6m into the SA economy this year.

A number which is hugely impressive given the impact of border closures on the availability of acts. Last year’s event, held right on the cusp of the pandemic, generated $41.6m.

“The gross expenditure supported by the Adelaide Fringe is over 30 times of the funding it receives from all levels of government,” the PWC report says.

So an event that needs just $2.4m from we, the taxpayers, to operate in its current form generates $40m bucks for us in a normal year. Money well spent.

Compare that to some other festivals.

The Fringe receives $3 in government subsidies for every ticket it sold (and this year it sold 632,000 tickets). Whereas other SA arts events assessed by PwC receive between $10 and $100 from government per ticket.

In human terms, what this means is that there’s a lot of blue-collar workers in Noarlunga and Salisbury who are shelling out so that barristers and surgeons can go to La Traviata.

The Fringe, in contrast, is a fundamentally democratic event where the average ticket price is just $28 and many events are free. Which helps explain why it attracts 2.8 million attendees to its many events.

You get the sense that the Fringe has been a victim of its own success. As it has been years since it has had anything resembling a serious funding increase.

There seems to be a view that has existed on both sides of politics that it is performing well enough and needs no extra love or attention.

Premier Steven Marshall promised a suite of measures to make up for the cancellation of the Adelaide 500. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

The PwC report scotches that assertion and points to the untapped potential of the Fringe to become a must-attend event for all Australians. And a drawer for international visitors, as per Edinburgh, Glastonbury or the festivals of Austin and New Orleans.

Rather than something we all love in SA but remains largely unknown elsewhere.

To that end PwC is urging the state government to invest an extra $2m into the Fringe, with that money earmarked for three clear objectives: $750k for a national and international marketing campaign, $750k to attract one big, headline-grabbing blockbuster event, and $500k for grants to help performers and venues who have been financially ravaged by the pandemic and lockdowns.

It is interesting to contrast this modest request, set against a proven track record of delivering, with the kind of cash being lavished on other festivals.

The Illuminate festival received $5m, more than twice what the Fringe currently enjoys. Money has also been showered on things like the Masters Games and the Bloom spring program, announced Thursday as the state government tries to defuse the fallout from the V8’s cancellation.

Personally I am not sure how a few octogenarians playing lawn bowls can offset the loss of the V8s.

And as nice an idea as Illuminate was, it’s hard to see why it deserves more money than an event with as proven a track record as the Fringe.

The economic numbers drawn up by PwC speak for themselves. They argue that with the extra $2m the Fringe’s annual kick into the SA economy will go from about $40m a year to $160m a year by 2025.

Adelaide Fringe director Heather Croall, centre, with performers from Fringe show Disco Wonderland at the opening of the 2021 festival. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Fringe chief executive and artistic director Heather Croall hopes the report can start a conversation about the untapped potential of the Fringe.

“Lots of big arts festivals around the world sell around 30,000 tickets in their entire season,” she said.

“We sell that many tickets every single day for a whole month. Around 80,000 people come out every single day to explore the Adelaide Fringe.

“It really offers a thrilling blueprint for how a city can be entirely transformed by an arts festival, and one where everyone feels included.

“We need to get beyond the point where it is Adelaide’s excellent little secret.”

While ostensibly about letting your hair down and having a good time, it is also important to remember that all this artsy stuff is also about jobs. In the case of the Fringe, 4431 of them in direct and indirect jobs created.

That’s a hell of a lot of people, many of whom have done it tough this past 18 months. And it could be so many more in the years ahead with the tiniest amount of extra assistance.