Sponsors Make Big Noise, by Sharon Verghis - 22nd January 2004
Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

If the sponsors of the Sydney Festival had their way you'd be consuming Beck's beer and Piazza D'Oro coffee along with your avant-garde German theatre. You'd pay for your tickets with American Express, and master the salsa with the help of a Bacardi-infused cocktail.

Big arts festivals are big business for the big end of town - an equation made in heaven for the festival director, Brett Sheehy, who ensured that the key corporate names which contributed millions to this year's coffers were given prominent billing at the festival launch on Thursday night.

The gratitude is understandable. While sponsorship levels for the Perth and Adelaide festivals hover around 20 to 25 per cent, the Sydney Festival continues to attract from corporate coffers more than 45 per cent of its annual $11 million to $12 million turnover.

Lured by a potent mix of traditionally healthy festival attendance figures (last year's festival attracted more than 100,000 for ticketed events and 1.5 million for the free events) and Sydney's summer "party town" image, 44 official sponsors, six sources of government and foundation support, and 37 other smaller supporters have come on board this year, flogging everything from boutique German beer to celebrity gardeners.

The general manager, Josephine Ridge, says that despite the volatile aviation market, Malaysia Airlines signed on for the second year, while the big end of town remains loyal despite the weak general sponsorship market. "The festival creates a big noise, and that is attractive to sponsors."

The fine art of selling is aggressively evident this year, with the festival's popular Hahn Premium Festival Bar being renamed the Beck's Festival Bar in a push by Lion Nathan, which distributes both brands, to promote the German beer.

Bacardi, meanwhile, will use its flagship Bacardi Latino Festival in Darling Harbour to push its products to the huge crowds expected through licensing arrangements with nearby clubs and restaurants.

Under the popular "fast festival feasts" program, restaurants such as Bistro Moncur, Otto and Salt will go on the hunt for festival customers - "Food and wine and the arts go very nicely together," Ridge laughs - while the principal sponsor, Channel Nine, is heavily promoting everything from its 2004 line-up to a new talent search program.

There is no danger of the strong corporate presence having any impact on artistic and programming decisions, Ridge says. Even heavily branded events, such as the Bacardi Latino Festival, are fully owned and produced by the festival, with sponsors limited to providing funding only.

Ridge is non-committal when asked if the festival has ruled out ever going down the path of the Adelaide Festival, which has been renamed after its new principal sponsor, Adelaide Bank.

"It hasn't come up in discussions because we've had Channel Nine as a principal sponsor for over 10 years now, and it's something you would only offer a principal sponsor. It's not an issue for us."

Links:

Sydney Festival

Mediaman Sponsorships, Clients and Affiliates