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Adelaide Fringe Festival director Heather Croall struggled to hide the desperation in her voice at a press conference today, after South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said his government would not provide the festival with an additional $8 million in funding.
"We have been fighting through this pandemic so hard to make sure we can give money to artists and venues to make sure that South Australia can get the festival they want," she said, choking back tears.
"I'm sorry, because it is a heartfelt battle that we have been driving and I am absolutely passionate."
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"I truly believe that the Adelaide Fringe is the jewel in the crown in this state, and it needs the funding to double down so that we can disperse that money to artists and venues who are taking the risk every year."
This comes as opposition leader Peter Malinauskas announced Labor's plan to double the event's funding with an extra $2 million for each of the next four years, additional to the baseline $2.4 million annual operating grant.
Premier Marshall held a press conference to open the Fringe Festival on Thursday morning where he stated the Liberal Party has no plans to increase funding "at this stage".
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Defending his position, Mr Marshall said his party had "significantly increased the expenditure going to the Fringe" since coming into power.
"In the previous term of Labor, they spent $7.17m supporting Fringe – we've driven that up to $11.58m over our four years," he said.
In 2021, the state government gave 2022 Fringe additional funding of $1.4 million — $600,000 for COVID-safe operations, $500,000 in grants for artist support, and $350,000 for its drone event, Sky Song.
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The drone light show will no longer be happening on Friday night at the opening of the festival after organisers failed to gain the appropriate permissions to fly over Adelaide.
Adelaide Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere and runs for 31 nights, from February 18 to March 20, 2022.
Source: 9News
