If you expected the Salt Lake City arts council to be rolling in the dough after charging an admission fee to this year’s Twilight Concert Series, Director and founder Casey Jarman said think again.
He said the drop in beer sales paired with lower attendance mostly offset the new source of revenue. This summer concert goers paid $5 at the gate or $35 for a season pass. But the series drew an average of 15,000 people per show, which is about half of last year’s attendance. That’s why Jarman said it will still require a large financial commitment.
“But much less than it was last year," Jarman said. "And so that’s very encouraging. It gets us back on track. Our budget was at zero. We were using every resource we could come up with to fund this concert series and it was just too much of a drain on the Salt Lake City Arts Council.”
Jarman added artist fees, which make about two-thirds of the budget, continue to rise. So he doesn’t expect the concert series will turn a profit any time soon.
“I’m hoping it will mean that we can continue with this level and maybe even bring in a little bit higher profile artists that we can now afford on the series," he said.
Jarman said if concerts had been free again this year, only 4 or 5 shows would have been mounted instead of nine. The Twilight Series wrapped up August 30th in Salt Lake City's Pioneer Park.