How do we fund SOOB?

SOOB is an artist-run initiative that generates the majority of its annual budget through ticket and beverage revenue at our shows.

This year, it will cost more than $210,000 to produce Straight Out of Brisbane. The majority of that money is raised from our audiences through ticket revenue and beverage sales at the festival. Our major financial supporters are therefore the audiences (the vast majority of whom are themselves young artists and creative workers) who come to our shows.

The other primary source of SOOB's support remains the volunteer labour of the many hundreds of artists and creative workers who contribute to the festival's success each year. That's why "The artists, workers and volunteers of this festival" are listed as THE major sponsors of SOOB on the sponsors' column to your left.

The incredible altruism of SOOB's many volunteers extends from the full-time workers on SOOB's management committee who receive only a small stipend for their year-round, 50 hr/wk efforts, through the technical and production staff who work for a fraction of industry rates, to the artists of SOOB themselves, many of whom work for months to exhibit and show work at the festival for free.

SOOB also receives substantial in-kind sponsorship and support from other Brisbane venues, businesses and arts organisations. We receive grant funding from the Australian and Queensland Governments and the Brisbane City Council.

SOOB is very proud of the support we attract from the south-east Queensland community, and we would like to thank everyone who has helped to make this year's festival a reality.

More on SOOB's grant funding

Because we believe we have a valuable contribution to make to the Queensland creative industries and artistic community, SOOB applies for (and sometimes receives) project funding for the festival each year. This grant writing process is an onerous and time-consuming task which takes up large amounts of the SOOB management team's time.

This year, SOOB wil receive nearly $80,000 in grant funding: $49,000 from an Arts Queensland major grant, $20,000 from the Australia Council's Theatre Board, and $10,000 from the Brisbane City Council through its cultural policy unit. SOOB also receives substantial in-kind support from the Brisbane City Council, particularly through subsidised rent of our offices at the BCC's Visible Ink youth space in Fortitude Valley.

All of the grants SOOB has received have been one-off project grants. SOOB receives no ongoing program or organisational funding of any kind, and has essentially no security of funding. Next year, for example, we are ineligible for Arts Queensland's major grant program, which is only available to an organisation once every two years. SOOB is not eligible for funding programs like the various Key Organisations grants of the Australia Council boards.

The 2005 funding outlook for the festival is therefore relatively bleak.

Where the money goes

SOOB's grant funding is spent primarily on the production of the festival: venue lease and hire, venue fit-out, public liability insurance, sound and lighting hire, electricals and plumbing, hardware, as well as production staff to run our various spaces.

The next largest amount of SOOB's grant funding is spent on artists' fees, particularly airfares for interstate artists travelling to speak and present at the festival, as well as many local artists, musicians and speakers. Unfortunately, we do not have enough money to pay all the artists who appear at the festival.

A third major part of SOOB's budget is spent on marketing and promoting the program, including the printing of the program itself, street press advertising, posters, handbills and the like.

By far the smallest proportion of SOOB's budget is spent on wages for its organisers. So far, SOOB has never been able to afford to pay a ful-time worker.

However SOOB still makes a considerable positive impact on the local independent arts scene. This year we will inject more than $40,000 of our grant funding into the pockets of primarily local artists.

We'd like to acknowledge and thank our grant funders at Arts Queensland, the Australia Council and the Brisbane City Council for their support this year.

SOOB would like to gratefully acknowledge our funding bodies:

Arts Queensland Major Grant	Australia Council Theatre Board
	This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body
Brisbane City Council

Major Sponsors

Videopro Business Centre	NEC Australia	Brisbane Powerhouse

Media Partner

Scene Magazine - official Media Partner of the 2004 Straight Out of Brisbane Festival

i-GIVE Awards Sponsor

Donating 5 mobile phones for the winners of the i-GIVE Awards