Susan Provan, director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival , says this is one part of the “rolling uncertainty” she faced duringWith transmission rates quite high in the community, MICF had to deal with cancellations and refunds, late-ticket buying and staff shortages.And, while she found many audience members were “dead keen” to be back at live events, the number of tickets sold was “definitely not back to normal yet”.
“A loss in revenue impacts [how Sydney Writers’ Festival can] grow and innovate in the following years,” she says. “Commercial imperatives become a lot more important … and you become reliant on having events you“We want to be able to take risks. We don’t want to go into a creative black hole.”Richardson says the next six-18 months will be crucial for companies like this, as a number of federal and state support programs finish up and “the full impact of COVID” is felt.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)