From set up to sponsors, the Double Decker Arts Festival is a community-wide event that requires time and money to orchestrate.
The $80,000 Double Decker Arts Festival received from sponsorships this year is the highest in the festival’s history. The festival also receives funding from the city of Oxford through a hotel tax and a food and beverage tax. Of Double Decker’s $220,250 budget for 2015, the city provided $55,000. Art and food vendor application fees and festival merchandise sales also help to sponsor the event.
Visit Oxford director Mary Allen Hedges said the festival has relied heavily upon sponsors this year.
“The budget hasn’t grown like the festival has grown,” Hedges said. “We still need to keep the caliber of the festival and what people expect the festival to be. It’s one of the premiere art festivals in the southeast.”
Graduate Oxford, a 316-room hotel set to open in August just off the Square on North Lamar Boulevard, contributed over $10,000 to become the festival’s 2015 stage sponsor.
Graduate Oxford manager Mike Hoover said hotel management was eager to contribute to the annual festival, and hope to continue their participation going forward.
“We will certainly stay highly involved with Double Decker in future years, as we find this particular event a natural partner due to our shared commitment to the regional arts community,” Hoover said.
Double Decker is a major contributor to the funds raised by the city’s two percent hotel/motel tax and two percent prepared food and beverage tax, which in turn fund programs like the Oxford Tourism Council’s Special Marketing Projects program.
“That tax brings in over $2 million each year, and that is divvied up between several different city departments,” Hedges said. “Our office gets a portion of that money.”
The Special Marketing Projects program helps fund additional, third-party events that bring tourism to Oxford.
As the festival has grown, so too have the costs of upholding the quality of the event.
“Music is especially expensive, especially for a free festival,” Hedges said. “That has been a bit of a challenge.”
The festival’s 2015 music budget accounted for $75,000 of its total expenses. This does not include the $25,000 in stage and sound expenses or the $5,000 in hotel and backstage costs.
Owner Richard Howorth said Square Books has been sponsoring the Double Decker Arts Festival for some time now.
“We’ve never been major sponsors because we don’t have major money, but it’s clearly an event that’s good for our business and good for our community,” Howorth said.
Senior psychology major and Belles & Beaus employee Brooke Holloway explained what working a Double Decker day can be like at a business on the Square.
“The best part of working the festival weekend is all the enthusiasm each customer feels,” Holloway said. “Unlike normal shifts, nearly every customer is happy, chill, and having a good time. This attitude makes the workday extremely pleasant and, honestly, quite fun.”
