The Sausalito Art Festival, an annual tradition for 67 years, has been canceled for the first time since its inception.
The three-day event, which traditionally happens on Labor Day weekends, was scuttled for 2020 due to increased costs, said Louis Briones, executive director for the nonprofit Sausalito Art Festival Foundation. He cited the expenses of production, competitive booking rates for musicians, increased security concerns spurred by the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting and property rights issues.
“It’s going to be noticeably missed,” Briones said. “It’s a big event, and the economic impact the festival brings will be felt because it is a draw for people to come to Sausalito from all over the region and all over the U.S.”
The decision resulted in no staff layoffs, Briones said, but the event used seasonal workers at festival time.
Chairman Wayne Kaleck, in an announcement about the cancellation, said it will give the board more time to develop a strategy to ensure the art festival can survive despite unfavorable trends.
Sausalito Mayor Joe Burns said the loss of revenue the city generates from sales taxes in shopping and restaurants that weekend will be nominal.
“Given that it is only a one-year hiatus it won’t have much of an impact financially,” Burns said. “But the community, the art foundation board and people involved will find a use of that space on the weekend and will form some kind of get-together.”
He said the cancellation will mainly affect nonprofits who use the annual event as a fundraiser. He said food vendors and artists will have to find other ways to make up the shortfalls in revenue.
Burns said the city is working with the arts foundation and various nonprofits to organize a much smaller replacement event, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
He said that if the art festival were never to return to the city, however, it could have a greater impact.
Juli Vieira, chief executive of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, said the community was just informed about the cancellation. She said many nonprofits, vendors and schools are going to feel the pinch of its absence.
“We are all scrambling to figure out what the next step is for next year,” Vieira said. “I don’t think anyone has any ideas right now. Everyone is just looking for answers to replace the lost income.”
Briones presented an annual report to the Sausalito City Council on Nov. 12. In his report, he said the revenue stream for 2017, 2018 and 2019 art festivals shows a downward trend.
“There has been a 1.7% difference in revenue for those three years,” Briones said. “The trend is flat, and at worst it’s on a slight downward glide.”
The cost of keeping the festival experience on par with that of competing events like Outside Lands and Bottlerock is exorbitant, he said.
“In less than three years we’ve seen production costs double,” he said. “In 67 years, this first year that its not happening. Some years it’s gotten bigger, other years it’s gotten smaller. It has changed dramatically in other ways, but this is the first year we as a board decided to take a look at the entire picture to come up with a better plan.”
He said the board is seeking any suggestions from the community to help bring the event back for 2021.
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