Looking Ahead to Ocrafolk 2013

From its humble beginnings in June of 2000, the Ocrafolk Festival has become a huge success. It started small (about 150 people attended the first one-day event) and grew into the 3-day celebration of song, stories, art, crafts, food, and community spirit that it is today.

Ocrafolk Festival has been featured in Our State magazine and many other regional newspapers, and on regional radio stations. In 2012, Coastal Living magazine ranked the Ocrafolk Festival as one of 15 top island festivals in the world.

The success of the Ocrafolk Festival has brought it to a new crossroads. As more and more people attend the festival, the infrastructure has had to grow, too. Each year the festival requires an investment of more time (mostly volunteer) and more money (from donations and fundraisers). The organizers feel it’s time to re-assess how the festival is structured and funded.

The Ocrafolk Festival is now under the umbrella of Ocracoke Alive, Inc., a local non-profit that re-organized last year and took over management of the festival. David Tweedie has worked with the festival from the beginning, and is now board president of Ocracoke Alive.

“Our goal has been both to enrich the community through arts programming and to bring in tourists dollars,” David said. “Festival-goers have enjoyed high quality music, and hotels and rental houses are full during the weekend-long event. People love the festival and come from all over the east coast just to be here.”

The 2012 Ocrafolk Festival had the largest attendance to date, with a price tag of $41,292 (Click here for breakdown of costs). The highest expenses were performer fees at $16,300; housing of the artists at $4,000; graphic design, $4,300; production (sound, staging, facilities and equipment) $6,600. Management fees were $3,500.

Matching the increase in costs of the weekend, the need for volunteer hours has jumped dramatically. More than 150 volunteers worked on Ocrafolk Festival 2012, logging hundreds of hours. 

Some of the Ocracoke performers such as Molasses Creek and Donald Davis have donated their stage time year after year (never receiving payment), and all performers at the Easter and Thanksgiving Fundraisers have always donated their time. 

Gary Mitchell was the founder of the festival in 2000, and works every year on hiring the bands, coordinating the performance schedules, and taking care of sound and stage production. After 10 years of producing the event for free, David and Gary asked for and received an honorarium beginning in 2010 of $2,000 for the festival director (David), and $1,500 for the performance director (Gary).  

Although this money partially compensates them, the time they spend to produce the event continues to increase.  

In 2012, David logged in excess of 400 hours throughout the year. 

“Although I love it, and am happy to contribute significant time on it as community service, the Ocrafolk Festival’s growth is taking over our lives,” he said. 

David and Gary are not the only ones.

“There are many community contributors whose enthusiastic generosity brings this event to life,” David said.  “For their sake and our own, it is time to take a step back and look at the way this event is supported and produced. We want to work smarter, not harder, so that the festival can continue without folks burning out.”

Gary notes that in some larger communities, funding for public events comes from a city, and festival organizers are salaried employees of the local government. As the many non-profits on the island realize, this is not an option on Ocracoke. 

As David, Gary and the Ocracoke Alive board mull over the possibilities, they have begun to explore several strategies. 

For example, many similar festivals around the nation charge a daily and/or weekend rate for attendees. Could the Ocrafolk Festival do the same without losing attendance? How would it affect how much money visitors have to spend while they are on Ocracoke?

“We’re trying to relieve the fundraising burden on the local community and volunteers, and figure out a way that those attending and enjoying the festival can support it more,” Gary said.

While there is no shortage of ideas for labor-intensive fundraisers, “We need a large, reliable source of income from one source,” Gary added. 

Total income for the festival in 2012 was $44,070, resulting in a positive net income of $2,777, or a little over break-even, which is better than the previous year’s deficit of $5,000.  That positive outcome was the result of a lot of hustling on the part of volunteers.  Expense estimates for 2013 and 2014 are moving toward $60,000. Even with that increased budget, the festival will still rely on local cottage owners to donate some housing for performers. And Molasses Creek, Donald Davis, and others will still perform for free.

In an effort to address these issues, Ocracoke Alive and the Ocrafolk Festival are seeking feedback from the community about the importance of the Ocrafolk Festival to them and their feelings and ideas about the future of the event.

They are asking that residents and fans of the festival consider the following issues:

• How would you feel about the festival charging for attendance (with an exemption or discount for island residents), or a charge for the seating areas where rental seats are located?
• If there is a fee, how much should the daily and weekend rates be? (Similar events charge from $25 to $50 per day)
• How do you feel about having title sponsors for the event?  (i.e. “Corporate Name” Ocrafolk Festival 2012)?
• In previous years the festival has asked for and received $2500 from the Occupancy Tax Board.  Should the festival request more from the Occupancy Tax funds?
• How do you feel about alcohol being served at the Ocrafolk Festival in a “beer garden” area as a means of making money?
• Do you feel that the Ocrafolk Festival contributes to the community of Ocracoke Island?
• The festival has remained free so far due to corporate and private sponsorships, donations to the festival auction (made by local artists and businesses), grants from the OCBA and NC Arts Council, and Easter/Thanksgiving Fundraising Concerts. Attendees are encouraged to “sponsor” the Ocrafolk Festival through the fundraising auction and raffles, and by purchasing T-shirts and special buttons. What other ideas do you have that might raise significant funds to support the event?

Please comment below, email your comments to info@ocracokealive.org, or mail to Ocrafolk Festival, c/o Ocracoke Alive, P.O. Box 604, Ocracoke, NC  27960.