Festivals | The plight of the small festival in Kuusamo is getting worse – “I’ve looked through the fingers”, says the sponsorship company

Unlucky A festival of incoherent proms is looking increasingly unlikely.

The patronage campaign supporting the festival should raise a little over 35,000 euros per week in order to organize the festival. At the moment, the money is only 14,400 euros. According to the website, there are 83 mesenates.

Last year, the arrangements for the event failed catastrophically and the entire event was almost canceled right before it started.

Organizer Mikko Lévon told HS by email on Monday that the funding possibilities for the upcoming festival and, for example, postponing the schedule of the funding campaign are still being considered. He says that the “due date” and goals of the patronage collection can be completely modified by the organizer himself.

He also announced that he intends to contact patrons who have already donated money.

So it sounds simple: Let’s move the collection date and calculate the collection target. Then parties are organized with whatever money is available.

So however, it is not a simple situation, says the person who runs the Mesenaatti.me service Marko Tanninen.

“That goes into a bit of a gray area, but we have been instructed that the campaign creator can change the amount only on the condition that the event can be organized as described,” he explains. “That is, the campaign creator is able to deliver what he has sold.”

The Patron Collection, which supports the organization of next summer’s festival, has already been postponed twice and the minimum goal has been reduced from 70,000 euros to 50,000 euros. Can it still be dropped?

“I understand that they have debts from last year’s festival that went wrong, and a great desire to organize it again, so I’ve been looking at the situation a bit through the fingers. However, I have been in contact with the organizers a few times and said that they should contact the financiers about the changes.”

So the goal can be dropped?

“If it is dropped, all those who have already financed it must be notified in writing. I have also said a couple of times that the collection time cannot be extended anymore.”

According to the organizers, more than 60 performers have been booked for the festival. Do you think the organizers should make it to 50,000 or is there some amount between the generous 14,000 collected now and that would be enough?

“I’ve never organized a music festival myself, so it’s hard to judge what it entails. However, they have already announced foreign artists as well, so it seems that there is no way they can upset the festival with those promised artists with that amount.”

So it looks like they have to refund the money?

“At the moment it seems so.”

What is Mesenaatti.me’s own earning logic anyway?

“We get a generous ten percent of the profit of the completed campaigns. And if the campaigns are not successful, we will be covered when the money is returned and the transaction costs are paid.”