🔒New Haven’s International Festival for Arts & Ideas targets return of in-person events, but digital content not going away

March has become a problematic month for planners at the International Festival for Arts & Ideas.

Last year, just weeks before its 25th anniversary celebration, the pandemic shut down in-person events, forcing the New Haven festival to go all virtual.

This March, things were in flux again as COVID numbers in the state remained disturbingly high and forecasting for June was difficult.

But this year, festival leaders were ready for the unknown, says Shelley Quiala, the new executive director of the festival who began her job in August.

“We were bifurcating our planning last fall when we asked artists to approach us with a two-track option: live and virtual,” she said from the festival’s downtown New Haven office.

Now that COVID numbers have dramatically declined in the state and an increasing number of people become vaccinated, the festival will offer in-person performances on the New Haven Green from June 18 to 27 in front of live audiences. The shows will also be streamed online for those who still have hesitancy in communal gatherings or are not able to attend.

The question still evolving is how many people will be allowed in the audience, and how many will actually attend?

Festival planners are being guided by a COVID consultant.

In a typical festival run, up to 5,000 people flock to the New Haven Green but this year it will be a fraction of that number — 600 — and, although free, ticket registration is required “for contact-tracing” purposes, says Quiala. (Registration is at artidea.org)

“While the governor may have lifted restrictions, we‘re looking to evaluate in a slightly more conservative way,” she says. The number will be reviewed for possible expansion closer to the festival date.

Early registration for free tickets indicates attendance will not be an issue with many of the days already sold out.

“Our expectation is that we’re going to be full,” says Aaron Thompson, the festival’s new director of finance and administration.

But a digital presence will continue to be an important part of the festival this year — as well as the years ahead, says Quiala.

The “ideas” portion of the festival — which includes panel discussions, conversations and speakers on hot-button topics — will all be exclusively online and it, along with the bike and walking tours and food events, is scheduled in the weeks before the traditional two-week festival span in June.

Financial impact

The virtual/live dynamic of this year’s festival is also impacting the event’s finances.

Because it did not produce a physical event last year, the festival’s $2.5 million budget saved $600,000 from not having to pay venue fees. Also helping was special fundraising events throughout the year and a financial bump in giving because of the festival’s 25th anniversary.

However, it did not earn its typical $200,000 in ticket sales, but that income stream makes up less than 10 percent of the overall budget. The festival ended its fiscal year Sept. 30, with a surplus of more than $600,000.

This year, with in-person performances returning, production expenses will increase, along with new bills for COVID-related safety measures, enhanced technology and communications equipment.

“There are compliance issues we have to deal with,” says Thompson, listing items such as additional trailers to accommodate more social distancing and space for artists; fencing; additional staffers for COVID checking; and more portable toilets.

This will be offset, says Thompson, by the $500,000 in funding from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program.

“No way we could be on the Green and virtually streaming without PPP," Quiala said.

The festival also has an advantage of being in relatively stable financial shape with no debt, recent annual surpluses and a working capital fund with $2 million in net assets, says Thompson. The expectation is the festival this year will be in the black again.

Future investments

Looking ahead, Quiala said she sees the need to upgrade online streaming capabilities, but is confident in her in-house tech director, Tiffany Hopkins, who adapted last year’s festival all online in a matter of weeks.

The quality of the online experience is a priority for the festival’s team. This year, the festival partnered with Comcast New Haven to bring fiber optics to the Green.

The digital presence — and the access it allows — is a new dimension for the festival that is yet to be fully realized.

“We’re moving from an organization that used to be very on-premise based to one that is very cloud-based,” says Thompson.

Quiala shares that expansive view.

“I don’t think we’re going back to a time when we’re only in-person,” she says, but adds, “we won’t be going back to a time [like last year] when we’re only virtual. The future is a mix and it’s really going to be about what the art is and what best serves that experience.”

The digital expansion also allows the festival experience to be longer than its traditional two weeks in June, Quiala says, with this year’s pre-June events as an example.

“There’s a certain audience that will come to New Haven at the end of June — but that’s not everyone,” she says.

Quiala says consideration is being given to offering programming that might be slightly different — or hitting a different audience — at other times of the year that will grow the festival.

But there will always be the June festival too, she says.