The Falls Music & Arts Festival has received Tasmanian Government funding each year for the past nine years which has enabled the event to grow into a major event for the State. Funding has varied each year and in 2011, the event was allocated $96,450 towards ‘dollar for dollar’ joint infrastructure projects. 
Over the years, Tasmanian Government funding has contributed to site infrastructure, interstate marketing and the arts programme. Government funding has enabled the festival to keep the ticket price at an affordable level for Tasmanians and an attractive level for visitors to the state who bare additional travel costs. The Tasmanian event is by far the cheapest festival of its kind and scale in Australia. The festival could not have been produced to the level that it has in Tasmania without the support of the Tasmanian Government.
Each year, The Falls Music & Arts Festival delivers a world class event to Tasmania and significant social, cultural and economic benefit. The 2011 event delivered:
- Performances from 24 international, 47 interstate and 27 Tasmanian artists on the two main stages and in the Arts Village
- 7,500 interstate visitors. Visitors to The Falls Music and Arts Festival stay on average 7.9 nights in Tasmania over and above their time at the festival during their visit to Tasmania for the festival.
- Significant profiling for Tasmania through the events marketing campaign, including the event website receiving 1,174,889 visits, 681,069 unique visitors and 2,213,915 page views in the past 7 months alone since 1 June 2011.
- Approximately $30m in direct and indirect festival related expenditure, including an event budget of around $4m.
- A safe and well managed environment for Tasmanian people and families of all ages to come together and celebrate. The New Years Eve timing has reduced pressure on emergency services with a significant population managed onsite instead of on the streets.
In 2011, a grant request seeking State Government support of $150,000 per year for the next three years for interstate marketing and incremental headliner budget was rejected. Other events, including the AFL / Hawthorn Football Club ($3,375,000 minimum annually for 5 years); MONA FOMA ($350,000), Ten Days on the Island ($1,500,000), V8 supercars ($2.08m over three years), the Junction Arts Festival ($250,000), Mark Webber Challenge ($250,000) are all receiving State Government funding. The North Melbourne Football Club also received support from the State Government owned Spirit of Tasmania ($250,000 per game).
The population size and remoteness of Tasmania does mean that major events are less viable in Tasmania than in other states. Without support, events either don’t exist or are of a smaller scale than The Falls Music and Arts Festival and the other State Government supported events, thus unable to deliver the full social, cultural and economic benefit potential.
The Falls Music and Arts Festival remains one of the most efficiently run events in Australia and stands well and truly on its own two feet in the Victorian market. It would not be possible to reduce budget expenditure on the Tasmanian event without compromising the integrity of the festival and the appeal to Tasmanian’s and interstate visitors. In a struggling local economy, the ticket price has reached its ceiling and any increase to cover a withdrawal of State Government support would result in a lower attendance, thus reducing the benefits delivered to Tasmania and further compromising the event’s viability.
Organisers applaud the Tasmanian Government’s investment in events to attract valuable tourism which generates economic benefit for the state. The Tasmanian Government does have an established budget for tourism and events. Organisers will shortly be reapplying to the State Government for funding for the 2012 event from State Government budgets already available for tourism, arts and events. Organisers are not seeking funding from other budget areas such as health or education, but will be requesting that the contribution of The Falls Music and Arts Festival to the State, both standalone, and in comparison to other State funded events will be considered and are hopeful of an equitable response and level of funding from the Tasmanian Government so that plans for 2012’s 10th year celebrations can take shape.
