Hidden Costs

May 28 2015 | By More

Hidden Door Festival struggling

The innovative Hidden Door Festival 2015, which has taken over King’s Stables Yards to huge critical acclaim, needs to hike ticket sales to reach its break-even target.

The event needs to raise a total of £100,000 from tickets, merchandise and bar sales to cover the costs of regeneration of the site and staging the festival itself. This is in addition to moneys raised in other fund-raising efforts.

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The nine day festival is hugely ambitious with a main core of 60 visual arts installations supplemented by 20 theatre productions – in two theatres in found spaces – a cinema programme and a live music programme every night.

However organisers were not successful in gaining any public funding to stage the event – but decided to do it anyway, relying on sales with an extra crowdfunding site to raise money.

Sales are not nearly where they need to be to achieve break even.

According to an email sent to performers and artists on Wednesday: “Not selling out the first Saturday and the huge knock-on effect that would have had on advance ticket sales, and how quiet Monday was, have had a big impact on our finances.

“The number of advance sales for tonight and tomorrow means that this will get worse, sadly.”

Æ contacted Hidden Door director David Martin who explained that the not-for-profit organisation is trying to work out a sustainable model where it can stage its unique festival without public funding.

Martin told Æ: “These things don’t happen very often because the are difficult to put on. But unless people come along, they won’t happen again.”

He stressed that the situation is not beyond redemption, with three full evenings still to go, and the crowdfunding site still open for donations from those who wish to see Hidden Door continue.

Hidden Door, Friday 22 – Saturday 30 May 2015.
Daily, noon-11pm.
Free before 6pm.
The Old Street Lighting Depot, King’s Stables Road, EH1 2JY.
Website: http://hiddendoorblog.org/about/
Crowdfunding page: http://hiddendoorblog.org/crowdfunding/

ENDS

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