The annual Kiama International Sea Side Arts Festival (KISS) has lost 40 percent of its funding due to Kiama being named a major city in 2024. KISS Arts Festival is an annual free family friendly festival that celebrates circus, comedy and art and has been held in Kiama for 12 consecutive years.

The festival previously relied on almost half of their budget from Regional Arts funding, but since Kiama is no longer considered ‘regional’ they are going to have to figure out other ways to continue.

In a video released via the KISS Facebook page, event organisers Tamara Campbell and Dave Evans revealed, “We need to raise an extra $20,000 for the festival and this has happened because Kiama, with its one traffic light, has been declared a major city which means we’ve lost access to all of our regional funding.”

The labelling of Kiama as a ‘major city’ is very strange as Kiama doesn’t feature the regular elements of a major city such as Wollongong. Campbell says this strange decision could negatively affect the arts culture in Kiama as a whole.

“In terms of regional funding eligibility from Festivals Australia, the reason that we were previously classified as regional is because we are a country town, we don't have the population that major cities do, we have minimal public transport links, minimal infrastructure and facilities and as such, it was deemed important to support artistic activities in country Australia. None of those things have changed,” says Campbell.

However, MP for Kiama Gareth Ward isn’t convinced that the labelling of Kiama as a ‘major city’ is the main problem. He says that it is all the Labor party’s doing.

“Whilst the Federal Government have recategorized Kiama as a major city for GST purposes, which is rather odd, this has nothing to do with the NSW Labor Government’s savage cuts to regional arts programs,” says Ward.

Ward cites his previous ability to be able to secure regional arts grants from the coalition government as a prime indicator of the Labor government’s priorities.

“As the local MP, I was able to secure several grants for the KISS Arts Festival and many other local Kiama arts and cultural festivals from the former Coalition Government. However, the current NSW Labor Government sees NSW as simply Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong; regional NSW just isn’t on Labor’s radar,” says Ward.

It remains that Evans and Campbell need funding and they have tried to find other pathways by applying for grants and funding applications themselves and have been unsuccessful due to a big increase in applicants as well as their own lack of experience with the process.

“Funding applications are getting more and more competitive. COVID-19, bushfires, floods and now, major festivals folding has all had a devastating effect on the arts industry. As a result, more and more companies are looking to acquire funding to stay afloat. Numbers of applicants have increased considerably at the same time as less funding is available,” says Campbell.

“Funding is achieved by creating a rapport with these organisations which is not done overnight. They need to become familiar with your work and we need to learn to tailor our offering to exactly what the funding round is for,” says Campbell.

Campbell and Evans have now been forced to turn to the Kiama community for their help in getting the $20,000 of funds needed for the festival. 

“It wasn't a decision that we took lightly as we want KISS to always be a free festival. However, to take such massive steps backwards after making such solid steps forward for the last 12 years didn't seem like the right thing to do either. We are asking those in the community who have attended the festival in the past to pay it forward for those members of our community who can't necessarily afford to do it themselves. This is a one-off scenario and we are already looking into new funding and sponsorship options moving forward,” says Campbell.

In the video on the KISS Facebook page, Evans breaks it down that if 200 families donated $100 each then they would make their $20,000 target. And Campbell breaks this down even further by saying, “If you divide that $100 over the 12 years of KISS that works out to be only $8 a year to be at KISS.”

Evans and Campbell are very passionate about the KISS Arts Festival and believe that these events are an integral part of a small community like Kiama, and they would hate to see it taken away.

“Children who get access to the arts grow up to be well rounded creative thinkers. Adults who get access to the arts are able to laugh, cry, dance, sing, open up to each other and build community. Families that are exposed to the arts are able to enjoy all of the above together,” says Campbell.

“Each year we build on the previous year and each year we are approached by our community with new ways to be involved. Our desire to produce accessible, family friendly events and Kiama's creative spirit drives us to produce KISS each year.”

If you would like to support live performance and the arts in Kiama, you can donate to ensure that KISS gets another year. The link to the GoFundMe is here.