The Festival of Colour earned $900,686, mostly from box office and sponsorship, and spent $815,444, with event costs and staffing taking the biggest slices of the pie.
The $66,459 surplus was achieved after deducting $18,782 in timing adjustments and non-operating expenses.
Dr Brown said the trust went into the last festival "with a little bit of trepidation" because of the economic downturn and a nationwide reduction in audience numbers.
"We wanted to lift the programme and were worried about how to deal with audience numbers. And it was our first foray into Queenstown," Dr Brown said.
The trust started with a small budget deficit but took heart from the programme chosen by festival director Philip Tremewan, which Dr Brown felt was "at least equal to, if not exceeding previous years" in quality.
Fortunately, the audience numbers proved particularly good, with an 81% turnout, compared to 80% in 2009. One-third of audience members were visitors.
The Queenstown audience for the "Passing Wind" production was "a bit low" but three other productions made up for that, achieving 85% to 91% audiences, Dr Brown said.
Trust member and accountant Wayne Findlay said from a numbers point of view, this year's festival was the best of the four events held so far.
"We are in a good state. If we want to do new works, we can do that now," Mr Findlay said.
Dr Brown said a small increase in ticket prices, mostly because of an increase in GST, had initially been worrying but had not seemed to deter people.
The festival wanted to increase its audience capacity and box office takings but was constrained by Wanaka's venue sizes. For that reason, Queenstown was an important audience.
The festival could also try more repeat shows in Wanaka and work to make late night shows more appealing for younger people, Dr Brown said.
Mr Tremewan said it was too early to say what would be in the 2013 festival, but he was already working on the programme, attending arts markets and liaising with other festival directors.
Serious planning would begin after the Asia-Pacific Arts Market in Adelaide early next year, and programme announcements were expected in about a year's time.
