First, if you didn’t know this about Something Queer, we are a non-profit organization led by a diverse and volunteer board of directors. This feature alone makes us somewhat unique among many of the other gatherings and festivals that happen in the Bay Area and beyond. No one from our organization profits from the event and anything that we make is kept in the organization (and used to fund grants). This principle is critical in our thinking of how we set ticket prices to our event each year.
In fact, the board of directors met in December to approve a budget for the year and set our ticket prices. We made our decisions with a few principles in mind: first, that we must be prudent with any money coming from our community; second, that we want to ensure that individuals from various socio-economic statuses and from all parts of our community can attend; and third, that the ticket prices should reflect as close to our budget as possible. We try to be as transparent as possible, which is why we publish our rough budget on our website each year (not very many festivals do this!)
This year, everything went up in cost. In fact, our total increase in costs from last year to this year was about 12% across all categories. Everything is more expensive this year — the venue, food costs, transportation, insurance (did you know that we cover catastrophic cancellation coverage?), and all the little extras it takes to legally run a small non-profit. The board felt that just raising the ticket prices across the board by 12% would not be equitable. Basically, our actual cost for the event is about $325 per person.
Our ticket prices (and the increase in cost) reflect our prudent budgeting (our board has a fiduciary duty to the organization) along with a focus on equity. Our intention was to create a sliding scale for ticket prices. First, we kept the lowest tier prices the same as last year ($250) and renamed them “Subsidized” to indicate that these tickets were below cost and designed for those who might not be able to afford the full cost. We also increased the number of available subsidized tickets this year. The ticket with the largest amount of inventory is our “Sustainer” ticket ($325). This reflects in increase in cost from last year of $15 (or 4.5%). Our supporter and benefactor ticket categories include larger donation values (tax deductible) as a way of allowing us to cover more subsidized tickets. Our guess is that we will sell out of everything except the Benefactor ($450) tickets as we get closer to the event. If you can afford to buy a more expensive ticket, please do!
We also had to increase the costs associated with the add-ons. Beds in the lodge went from $55 to $60 and the other categories all went up. Most of these increases are really due to the increasing costs by the venue. That said, we did something this year that we’ve never done in the past — all of the cabins on site are listed for purchase. We did this because we also wanted to prioritize transparency and fairness in the ability to secure one of these locations.
Importantly, adding the additional Benefactor category allows us to bring in additional revenue to give away more tickets to those who can’t afford to pay for a ticket. Our ticket and travel grant program (formerly known as our “scholarship” program) is something that we are committed to increase each year — our goal is to have roughly 20% of the total number of tickets allocated to this program. We are getting closer to that number each year (in 2021 it was 11% and last year the number was closer to 15%). This is an important priority to us. We also fund a number of artists each year to make their art and invite them to bring it to the event. As a core tenet of our mission, we will continue to do this.
We also want to hear from the community…what’s working and what can be changed? We want to continue to co-create and build this amazing experience together in community and we are so grateful and honored to be able to do this with each of you.
Thank you for your support and we can’t wait to see you in May!
XOXO,
Something Queer
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