National Folk Festival managing director Heidi Pritchard has been axed in the wake of the event’s disastrous 2024 financial result.

The festival will become a leaner operation, shaking up its staffing arrangements as part of cost-saving measures designed to ensure the organisation’s sustainability and future of the annual Easter event at Exhibition Park.

Ms Pritchard was set to stay on but may have paid the price for delivering an event that incurred a $450,000 loss, mainly due to up to 10,000 fewer patrons this year.

The festival was one of many music events across the country to suffer falling crowds and financial losses, as audience patterns fail to rebound from the pandemic and the cost of living crisis squeezes people’s budgets.

NFF board president David Gilks said it had been a difficult decision to let Ms Pritchard go and thanked her for her support and the immense contribution she made to the 2024 festival.

“Heidi has forged strong links with the Canberra community and has established important connections with folk festival leadership across the country,” he said. “We wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”

Mr Gilks said the restructure was a necessary step to ensure the costs of staging the festival were sustainable in light of the current economic environment and changing audience behaviours.

“We continue to review all of our costs, with this staffing restructure being a difficult but necessary decision.”

The sale of the festival’s Mitchell premises had been flagged and Mr Gilks said it remained on the market.

The 2024 festival’s operations manager, Anne-Sophie Denzer, will step into a new role of festival director, leading the event’s operations and business management; Demelza Crook will continue managing the team of volunteers.

In a show of faith in the content offering of this year’s event, the three artistic directors – Michael Sollis, Holly Downes and Chris Stone – will stay on.

The National Folk Festival’s new festival director Anne-Sophie Denzer. Photo: LinkedIn.

Mr Gilks said the trio would continue to bring their strong vision grounded in an ethos of artistic excellence, integration, inclusivity and sustainability to the 2025 festival.

“We’re excited to help shape the future of the festival and are continuing to work collaboratively with the board, festival volunteers and the folk community towards an outstanding event next year,” Mr Stone said.

“The National Folk Festival continues to build on the foundations of beloved folk traditions in order to deliver the inclusive, diverse, and collaborative event our patrons have come to love.

“The board and I look forward to working with the entire festival team to deliver a phenomenal 2025 National Folk Festival.”

Mr Gilks said further announcements on plans for next year’s festival would be made in coming months, with artist and volunteer applications to open shortly.

In its submission to the parliamentary inquiry into the Australian live music industry, the festival called for more reliable and predictable government funding for community-based live music based on the benefits it brought to local communities’ economic, social and cultural life.

The submission said the music festival industry’s Soundcheck Report found that a lack of funding and available grants was the second most significant barrier to running a music festival after rising operational costs. It said 39 per cent of festivals claimed this had a severe or major impact on their event.