Kathleen Cody

In an effort to rein in approximately $90,000 in debt, the Cascade Festival of Music plans to abandon its longtime home in Drake Park this August and hold all of its concerts in the Bend High School auditorium, festival Executive Director Kathleen Cody said Friday.

Cody said the festival decided to make a one-time move from Drake Park — its performance home since 1984 — rather than cut concerts in order to get the nonprofit out of the red by Sept. 30, the end of its fiscal year.

“We did not want to do it, and we’re very unhappy about doing it, but we would be more unhappy if we didn’t take care of this financial problem,” Cody said. “We felt we owed it to the community to get this thing righted.”

One of Bend’s signature events, the annual concert series spread out over eight nights in late August features classical and world music. For most of its existence, the festival has held its concerts in a huge white tent that is annually erected in the park and which can accommodate 1,000 ticketed guests and a 100-plus member orchestra.

Cody said the festival earlier this year budgeted $120,000 for the Drake Park site before deciding to change venues, a decision Cody estimates will save the festival most of that amount.

“If you look at the Drake Park numbers, the move eliminates a majority of the expense if we don’t have to build our own city,” Cody said.

The move, she said, will be only for the 2008 season, which kicks off Aug. 25. Cody said the festival plans to return to Drake Park in 2009.

“Concertgoers won’t have the ambience of the park, but the music will be better,” said Cody, referring to the climate-control and acoustics in the roughly 1,300-seat auditorium.

As for the debt, Cody said the festival has operated at a deficit since the end of the 2004 season.

Plenty of debt

Cody, who took over as the festival’s executive director in December 2006, said the debt accumulated due to borrowing costs, unexpected expenditures related to operations and a guest artist budget that exceeded its 2007 budget by 100 percent, from $40,000 to $80,000.

Cody said the overrun was due to administrative oversight, as the bookings took place in late 2006 in between the tenure of the festival’s previous executive director, Sally Russenberger, who stepped down Sept. 30 of that year, and Cody’s arrival in December.

Artistic director Murry Sidlin programs the festival but is not responsible for negotiating or approving performance contracts, Cody said.

By the end of the 2007 season, the festival was $190,000 in debt, Cody said.

The festival’s budget in 2007 was $386,207, according to a statement prepared by Cody. Its 2008 budget is $325,000.

Out of the red

Cody said the festival has managed to rid itself of $100,000 in debt since September and plans to solicit corporate sponsorships and hold fundraisers to work off its remaining debt. Cody said current conditions in the economy as a whole are proving difficult for the festival to secure sponsorships. Cody said that during lean financial times, corporate sponsors tend to cut arts funding first.

Cody said ticket sales provide roughly 45 percent of the festival’s income, sponsorships another 35 percent, and grants and gifts account for the rest.

Moving the concerts to Bend High School will save money and — with 300 more seats in the auditorium than the festival’s Drake Park tent — could even net the festival more ticket proceeds, Cody said.

Sidlin, reached in Washington, D.C., where he teaches at Catholic University, said he approves of the move.

“It’s a temporary move and has a specific object, which is to make sure we play this summer and get the financial house in order, and I think it’s a very logical thing to do,” Sidlin said.

Sidlin, the festival’s artistic director since 1996, has previously announced he will step down at the end of this year’s season. He will be replaced in 2009 by noted conductor James DePreist, who is aware of the festival’s financial challenges, Cody said.

On the Web

Tickets for the 2008 Cascade Festival of Music go on sale today. Visit www.cascade festival.org for more information or to read a letter explaining the move from Drake Park by Executive Director Kathleen Cody.