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HotHouse Theatre recently announced it is discontinuing its Biting Dog Theatre Festival from 2009 onwards.
The Festival, a popular youth event on the Border's arts and education calendar, has run annually since 1998 but spiralling costs in recent years coupled with a shortfall in funding for the event has led to the decision.
The company has written to schools to inform them of the Festival's demise.
"HotHouse Theatre can only run the Festival with funding support from arts and education agencies outside the region. The cost of delivering the Festival has increased considerably since its inception in 1998. At the same time it appears we have exhausted philanthropic and corporate support for the event. The reality is many foundations are looking for new, one-off initiatives to support and our Festival can't really claim that status after a decade in operation," said co-CEOs Campion Decent and Bernadette Haldane.
"This year we increased entry fees to alleviate the shortfall but the increased fee still does not reflect the true cost of delivering the festival (if schools had to meet the true cost each group would pay about $3,500).
"We understand this might come as disappointing news but we know that your organisation is not immune to understanding the concept of budgetary pressure. We share your sadness but we have to face the fact that the Festival is not sustainable in its current form, nor is it considered core business by our key funding stakeholders at state and federal level.
"While there will be no youth festival in 2009 we will be working hard towards ensuring relevant activities for 2010 onwards. We'd love you to be a part of that conversation so please do not hesitate to get in touch with any ideas."
Next year HotHouse Theatre will be working to a new Business Plan. While the Festival is not part of current planning the company will be examining new ways to engage with its community and programming work that appeals to a potentially broader demographic including young people.
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