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Summer Festival declared a success as its 5th season comes to a close

Summer Festival declared a success as its 5th season comes to a close image
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Day
25
Month
July
Year
1988
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Summer Festival declared a success as its 5th season comes to a close

By HARMEN MITCHELL

NEWS ARTS WRITER

There’s no bow on it yet, but now that the fifth Ann Arbor Summer Festival’s all wrapped up, one thing is clear: If it takes five years to establish a festival as a going concern, both as an autonomous fiscal entity and as a dependable event in the eyes of the public, then this season firmly established the Summer Festival.

"In an interview, a tired but happy Alan Brown, the 27-year-old University of Michigan business school MBA candidate who has served for four years as the festival’s administrator, stated without hesitation, “This festival was clearly a great success — from several standpoints.

“Number one, attendance was up over 20 percent over last year,” he said.

That translates to roughly 18,000 people at ticketed events; approximately 25,000 flocked to free Top of the Park events - more than 1,000 people a night.

But while the TOTP is provided as a service to the community, the non-profit festival organization is most heartened by the increase in attendance at ticketed events. “Our portion of revenues will be just over $200,000,” said Brown. That puts the festival close to breaking even for the first time.

Not bad for an arts festival that just one year ago completed a season that Brown admits was troubled, “financially and, to some degree, programmatically.” But after a cycle of good and bad years, Brown said he sees the festival as a firmly established event. “We had people ordering tickets four months in advance, and that’s an important accomplishment.” Brown cited the fact that “this year’s program was very popular - and ultimately it is the program which is the product which makes or breaks it.”

But he also said that the festival’s longevity has worked to its advantage.

“My sense from talking with hundreds of festival goers has been more of a feeling that people are attending ‘the festival’ as opposed to attending ‘a concert by so-and-so,’ ” he said. “There is more to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival than sitting in a theater and seeing one artist perform. I would like the public to perceive the Ann Arbor Summer Festival as one major event, as opposed to 20 or 30 individual performances. ’ ’

Another of the festival’s successes is Top of the Park, which costs $35-40,000 a year. Some, though not all, of this is offset by corporate and individual contributions. Said Brown, “It’s a straight loss, always has been, (but) it is the way that we can serve parts of the community that would otherwise never attend a cultural event.”

The Summer Festival organization, even with a clear success on its hands, still has some major issues to deal with to enable it to, in Brown’s words, “dig in.”

Brown called the cash flow problems of 1987 “a symptom of the programming, and of marketing.” This year, Susan Pollay was hired to market the festival — getting the word out much earlier than had been done in previous years; in addition, the program was far more eclectic.

“I think that this year we struck a good balance, because the popular programs paid for the artistically successful programming -almost exactly, within several hundred dollars out of nearly $200,000,” said Brown.

Brown commented on two of the festival’s “constants” - the perennial Marcel Marceau and the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Eugene Power.

“Marcel Marceau told me that he’s not available next year,” said Brown. “He will be working with his company.” Marceau has made at least one appearance each year, and was originally perceived as the centerpiece of the festival. Brown does not, however, consider his withdrawal next year a blow. Rather, he said, “I think it’s another sign of the festival maturing.”

Brown said he sees the festival board poised to “address the concerns that face organizations at this point in their evolution.

".. I think the greatest challenge facing the festival now is weaning ourselves from reliance on several major resources and broadening our base of support, with respect to leadership and financial development,” he added.

Of Power’s role, Brown said, “There are so many individuals, companies, foundations that support the festival - many in a very substantial way - that it would not be appropriate to single out a certain person,” said Brown. “It is a fact that Eugene Power’s leadership has been essential to the success of the festival thus far, and will continue to be.”

Making the festival organization as stable as possible is Brown’s goal. “I’m trying to run the festival as if we were all going to be hit by a truck tomorrow,” he said, “and someone could walk in and take over. I’m very serious - and that’s a very difficult task when you have a small organization with several people carrying most of the knowledge of the festival in their minds.” This year saw a couple of surprises - local theater groups performed at “Top of the Park” rather than in ticketed events; local musicians (like Jim Dapogny) opened for ticketed musical events; classical music was less a focus than more experimental presentations - such as the Seattle trio Uncle Bonsai.

There are surprises in store for next year, although there are no contracts in place. Brown is anxious to have New York’s Circle Repertory Company back, citing the unprecedented step of collaborating with a major theater group rather than simply bringing in a pre-designed production.

The goal then, he said, “is to become less reliant on those angels, and more reliant on smaller donations, and ticket sales.”

The festival has now completely shaken its early bum rap of being an elitist event, and Brown’s long-range plans call for even more community involvement.

"The Power Center is sort of like this ‘black hole’ to which everyone comes - it’s very inward - and I think if we really want to get the other 50,000 people in Ann Arbor involved in the Summer Festival, we must go out to them.”

'There is more to the Ann Arbor Summer Festival than sitting in a theater and seeing one artist perform.I would like the public to perceive the festival as one major event, as opposed to 20 or 30 individual performances.'

— Alan Brown (left)