Rhythms of the World (ROTW) 2015 was a great community event. It was a fun, safe and enjoyable festival again. However, despite our best ever pre-event sales and excellent promotion and press coverage, ticket sales to ‘pay-on-the-day’ festival-goers were lower than anticipated.
As a result of this, ROTW has a shortfall against its budgeted income – not massive, but significant. Therefore, the Charity sought an agreement with its suppliers in July and has worked through the last four months to make payments against those invoices received.
The Charity Trustees have reviewed the Charity’s position and with regret, have concluded that they will not be able to hold a ‘traditional’ ROTW festival in 2016 because of both the current financial situation and the fact that attendances at the 2014 and 2015 festivals have been below the levels required to break even. The Charity currently does not have the cash reserves to support the investment needed to put on a big event. The financial risk is not acceptable to the Trustees and they are not minded to expose our suppliers and supporters to the same risk. On the plus side, by working with suppliers and other creditors, we have been able to secure the immediate future of the Charity which is solvent and continues to function.
Over the coming months, The Trustees will continue to explore alternative options for the future direction of the Rhythms of the World Charity and the festival.
Chair of the Trustees, Amy Hopkins, said:
‘Despite some very prudent budgeting, we have not generated the income needed to meet the costs of the festival.
‘We have obtained free expert financial advice to address the situation. Although an agreement has been reached with our suppliers, our ultimate aim is to pay them in full, when possible in recognition of the many years of support that the Charity has received from them.
‘Rhythms of the World 2015 was an amazing spectacle and we don’t want to detract from that. We would like to thank everyone who got involved – as an attender, volunteer, performer, sponsor, advertiser or trader. We would also like to thank Hitchin Priory once again for hosting the festival. We will do everything in our power to ensure Rhythms of the World has a future in Hitchin, and will be looking into a range of different fundraising options and ways to ensure a sustainable future for the Charity.
‘2016 is our 25th anniversary and we would like to mark the occasion in some way. We particularly would like to continue with our Outreach programme. We also need help from all of you to give us your thoughts, ideas and feelings about how you would like to see things go forward.
‘All of your opinions matter to us and the more feedback we get, the better informed we will be, so please do email us at [email protected] with how you’d like to see ROTW move on.’
We are encouraging people who want to support Rhythms of the World in the short term to make a donation to the Charity. You can do this online at www.virginmoneygiving.com and entering “Rhythms of the World’ in the ‘Find a Charity’ box. The full URL is:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/charity-web/charity/finalCharityHomepage.action?charityId=1007284
Donations can also be made through ‘Easyfundraising’, again, the link to our page is:
https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/rotw/
