Festival figures surprise

The Auckland Festival this year has caused a surprise - it lost a lot less than expected. Newly released figures for March's AK05 festival reveal a loss of $60,000, with a $700,000 "reducible guarantee" underwritten by the Auckland City Council.

Earlier reports had suggested the festival would take a hit of around $600,000 but when chief executive David Malacari presented his first post-AK05 report to the festival trust board on Wednesday, he presented a picture of a tight deficit - countered by wildly ambitious ticket sales targets which fell short by 400,000.

Attendance to free, ticketed and umbrella AK05 events totalled 269,000, with 31,599 sales for festival-produced ticketed performances.

"We would have posted a surplus if we had hit our targeted ticket sales," says board chairman Richard Waddel. "But we were still ahead of AK03, about 44,000 ahead."

The inaugural, AK03, festival, lost $486,000 and attracted a total audience of 185,233.

Former AK03 director Simon Prast has said the first festival was hobbled by several major factors, including the festival trust taking 11 months to hire Australian Renato Rispoli as its first director, who started in January 2002 and the discovery that his appointment was a disaster, leading to his dismissal and a prolonged legal battle when he sued for wrongful dismissal. He won, and the claim and legal costs were deducted from the festival's budget.