Does Auckland have what it takes to stage an arts festival?

By GILBERT WONG

Proceed with caution. That's the word from two Australian festival directors to those planning for Auckland to join the international festival circuit in 2002.

Brisbane's 23-day festival ended last Wednesday with a surplus of about $250,000 and ticket sales in excess of 90,000. Artistic director Tony Gould says that the growing number of arts festivals means that fewer people are prepared to travel to attend them.

In Brisbane's case, the city has a population of 1.2 million, but more importantly is the home of the state's major performing arts companies: the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Theatre Company, the Queensland Ballet and Opera Queensland.

Gould, who has three Brisbane festivals under his belt, says, "I think a festival could go well in Auckland, but it would be wise for the Government and the local councils to ensure that they have built a certain audience base."

In Brisbane, state performing arts companies are integral to the programme and the marketing of the festival to the arts audience. The implication is that Auckland, with only the Auckland Philharmonia and Auckland Theatre Company as substantial performing arts companies, might not achieve the necessary critical audience mass to ensure success.

The $10 million Brisbane festival receives generous handouts: $4 million from the state government, $1 million from the Brisbane City Council and $1.5 million from sponsorship. Ticket sales and federal arts financing make up the shortfall.

Gould: "If you don't put the right resources into it, don't do it, because people will make comparisons and if artistic quality doesn't measure up then you will have problems. If you do have the money and the will, a city the size of Auckland could host a successful festival."

Jonathan Mills, artistic director of the 17-day Melbourne festival, says a successful festival must have a creative focus to be more than a cultural smorgasbord.

"You need an event that absorbs people. It shouldn't be the same sort of material that is presented in a subscription series."

Mills, who is running his first Melbourne festival but was the artistic director of the city's millennium celebrations, says it can take a long time for a festival to be established in the public mind.

The festival has been part of the Melbourne calendar for 15 years. "It won't emerge fully fledged in the first year and perhaps not in the first five years. It may not be rocky, but its success depends on the planning and expectations."

In Melbourne's case, festival organisers have always been aware that they were going up against the Sydney Olympics. Mills has chosen a brave programme, focused on the 250th anniversary of Bach's death: 17 concerts that will encompass 42 cantatas, a complete liturgical cycle and a performance feat never before attempted in Australia. That decision has earned Mills some criticism in the festival's first week.

While the Brisbane festival delivered financially, there was not the buzz one might expect in the city's streets. Although the quality was high, wider public perception about the festival was low. Arts journalist Des Partridge, of the Brisbane Courier-Mail, complained that there were no big-budget public events, such as a fireworks show, that would pull non-arts regulars.

In Melbourne, the festival got off to a damp start with the opening free public performance of Ngalyod-The Rainbow Serpent by Mulwarr Dance and theatre group Plasticiens Volants. Touted as an Aboriginal version of the creation myth that would combine street theatre with indigenous performance, the initial crowd of several thousand soon dwindled to a few hundredas they trudged through the soggy Carlton Gardens. The verdict of the Melbourne Age's theatre critic was that the performance did not gel.

* Gilbert Wong visited Australia as a recipient of the Australian Government's Cultural Award Scheme.