Financial woes threaten future of Atlanta Dogwood Festival

The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is looking to raise by Nov in order for next year s festival to happen Photo via dogwoodfestival The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is looking to raise by Nov in order to ensure that next year s festival will happen Heading into its th year the festival is facing financial losses due to the impact of the COVID- pandemic reduced sponsorships and increasing costs according to a press release If the festival does not meet its funding goal and deadline there will be no festival in according to organizers Unlike selected other events in Atlanta we don t receive any taxpayer dollars announced Brian Hill Atlanta Dogwood Festival executive director We ve invariably raised that money through our own efforts It s been increasingly more complex According to the press release the Atlanta Dogwood Festival Board of Directors is currently in conversation with Mayor Andre Dickens office for endorsement from the city The festival is also seeking donations and sponsorships from corporations local businesses philanthropic organizations and past attendees The festival s production costs have risen somewhere between - percent since the start of the COVID- pandemic primarily due to the rising costs of precaution equipment rentals and other sponsorship services According to Hill the income made from the festival has not been able to keep pace with the costs Other reasons for the increase include the rising cost of labor as well as a shift to digital marketing during the pandemic when live events and therefore sponsorships of those events became temporarily obsolete When the Atlanta Dogwood Festival returned after taking a break in sponsorships returned too but in a more constricted manner declared Hill Nobody had any idea of how long the impact of COVID- was going to last especially economically he disclosed The Dogwood Festival is free to attend and usually hosts artists from across the country To offset rising costs over the past limited years the festival has introduced certain fundraising efforts such as the Mimosa K Run a VIP ticketed event midway rides and merchandise sales While several of those endeavors have been accomplished and popular they re still not keeping pace with expenses According to Hill scaling the festival down is not an option In diminishing the festival we re diminishing the value to sponsors We re diminishing the value to the vendors and the artists If it s less people coming and it s a smaller event they ve got other events that they can choose from from Fortworth to Chattanooga he commented If those are on the same weekend and if we aren t the Dogwood Festival then they will choose to go to those instead The post Financial woes threaten future of Atlanta Dogwood Festival appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta