Frome Festival launch Anniversary Appeal
In what would have been its 20th year, Frome Festival is appealing for donations to help it continue into next year and beyond. The annual festival which hosts up to 200 events and exhibitions over ten days of early July had to be cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19. Festival organisers are now facing a challenging financial situation as they look to move their celebratory festival programme to 2021.
Although the festival itself operates with the help of over 100 volunteers, the festival has a small professional team of three part-time employees – two of which are currently on furlough. Annual running costs – mainly staffing, fees and insurance, phone and electricity, plus, in a normal year, printing and promotion, amount to over £30,000.
The Festival organisers estimate that they need at least £6,000 more in emergency funding to secure the 2021 Festival and start rebuilding their reserves so that the annual festival can continue into the future.
Festival organises said “All contributions, of whatever size, will be gratefully acknowledged and the total will be recorded in the print and online versions of the next programme. Some of our generous supporters, however, may be in a position to make substantial one-off contributions of, say, £100-£500; these donations will be specifically acknowledged in the programme. We have already had two pledges of £500.”
The 2021 Festival will run from the 2nd to 11th July and it’s hoped that many events earmarked for this year will be re-scheduled for next, bringing together a programme to celebrate the festival’s 21st birthday and the twentieth festival.
