"I've always thought organising the festival was a bit like juggling balls in the air," the former professional singer, dancer and musician says.
"You start with a blank canvas. You've got 10 days and you've got to put shows on. Where do you start?
"It's a two-year cycle and we want balance, artistic integrity and quality. I hope like hell that I don't say `yes' then find, six weeks later, something very similar, but better, comes along.
"The longer I can keep the balls in the air the better, but that becomes awfully stressful."
It was a shock to many when Mr McBryde announced his intention to resign after this year's festival, which starts on October 8.
"They're going to be big boots to fill," was the common reaction to the news around town.
Mr McBryde (53) has been the face and force behind the festival since it debuted in 2000.
"This has been my baby and it's been a long journey. I'd just arrived back in Dunedin as a house husband in 1998 with no job, calling myself an 'arts consultant'. I was the right person in the right place at the right time," he says.
"The festival was just an idea when I arrived here. I got so excited when we did the feasibility study. We were at DCC meetings for a year and a-half. But I had no idea whether the festival would gain sufficient traction to go ahead.
"It's a funny job. I'm the artistic director and the general manager, which certainly makes the process more streamlined. Normally, the artistic director has to consult with the manager all the time to make sure they're on the same path. So, a lot of issues which are normal in this industry this festival doesn't have.
"For 18 months of the cycle the festival is just me. So I clean the lavatories and do the accounts and marketing and select all the gigs. I just do whatever it takes to make it happen," he says.
"It's the best job I've ever had and the worst job I've ever had."
Mr McBryde was born in Mosgiel, before his family moved to the Cook Islands when he was still an infant.
"I was brought up on bananas and coconut milk in the '50s," he says.
"I've worked in the performing arts most of my career. My chosen career was as a violinist, but I only lasted five minutes [actually, a year and a-half of performance violin study at the University of Canterbury]."
He managed the Canterbury Opera Company for its first seasons in 1985 and 1986 and the Dunedin Sinfonia from 1987 to 1992.
He has also sung opera, danced with the Southern Ballet Company, was the Court Theatre marketing manager, performed in "big musical stuff", such as Evita, in New Zealand and Australia, and tour-managed professional shows through New Zealand.
"Being able to talk their [performers'] language, it makes it so much easier for me to understand all the disciplines that I'm buying," Mr McBryde says.
"I have an empathy and understanding for what they're doing. I know what they're going through and where they're going, but I also know when they're pulling the wool."
As well as juggling 30 acts, dates and venues, he organises everything from visas to tax, contracts and initial travel arrangements and accommodation.
"It's about making the connections and then negotiating. It is exciting, but it can also be frustrating. We start the cycle with a blank canvas and there's a long period where not much happens, which can become quite nerve-racking.
"It's full of extraordinary frustration along the way. It's a very exhausting process, getting so close to booking acts before they fall over. I've got to be patient and cope with my frustrations."
Acts could take "years and years" to organise, Mr McBryde says.
"It took four years to get Kiri Te Kanawa here for this festival and four years to get Tricicle and The Camut Band here in 2008.
"We've only got 10 days. It's not like we're a theatre company doing this all the time. I try to get what I want for that 10 days, which is not always possible."
The Otago Festival of the Arts brings the best of international performance to Dunedin, Mr McBryde says.
"There's a whole world of opportunities and experiences out there. But it's a fine mix of giving people what they want and giving them things they don't know they want. Who would believe that a Dunedin audience would turn out to hear Mongolian throat singers? But they did and bought the CDs.
"The audience has learned to trust what's in the festival. That's a real sense of satisfaction to me. I'm quite proud of the programming I've put together over the years."
There have been a few dramas along the way. In 2008, he had to cancel a tour by 14-piece Canadian violin troupe Barrage.
"It was the only time in 30 years in the performing arts that I've had to pull the pin. That was five years in the making and it really hurt me. It was a very, very painful thing to do. We lost $100,000 through that, but it could have been much worse. We'd sold only 900 tickets nationwide and we needed 8000 to break even.
"That's part of the scariness. You can put something in place only to find that the market has shifted.
"We've had some other dramas, too. One artist threatened to walk out halfway through the festival over technical issues which he felt detracted from his performance. I had do some fast talking at midnight to ensure the show would go on the following night."
Mr McBryde has never been one to pull punches.
In the past, he has hit out at everything from the management of the Fortune Theatre and fundraising efforts for the Regent Theatre to the decision to make the Dunedin Fringe Festival an annual stand-alone event.
"I've been criticised for some of the things I've said. But ultimately, I care about this industry and what happens in Dunedin. The Otago Festival of the Arts is a sign of civilisation, maturity and sophistication. All good cities have these things. It's feeding more than the stomach and lining the pocket. It's about the soul, I guess. The festival provides that.
"And it's our Otago festival; not another festival morphed on to us. We're mindful that we're a boutique festival in a boutique city. But, as long as we can sustain that ...
"It's quite mercenary, though. You've got to get bums on seats. There's the eight-week period before the festival starts [which we are almost at the end of] when I get terribly nervous. The anguish of waiting for ticket sales can be hugely stressful.
"But Dunedin always comes to the party. One of the great joys is, when that party starts, seeing people at the festival club after the shows wanting to grab every last bit of it.
"The festival has a great reputation for being visually exciting, robust and financially secure. It now has an established international reputation. We can attract the world here now and bring in big stuff that Dunedin people would never experience otherwise.
"The artists enjoy it, too. We get unsolicited requests from all around the world every week.
"Nowadays, festivals are an industry. People can make a living performing at festivals like ours. Without this festival there's nothing for these acts to come to. This is the vehicle that makes it happen.
"A lot of fantastic stuff doesn't come to Dunedin, for all sorts of reasons. Commercial promoters usually steer clear of Dunedin because we're too slow to buy tickets. It's too hard for promoters. We have large venues and a small population, so generally people know they can buy a ticket at the door on the day. That makes promoters very nervous.
"But we didn't want to just package local artists.
"We wanted to really raise the bar way above what Dunedin had ever experienced before. And we've achieved what we set out to do. What this festival does is push the bar way high.
"Our first coup was getting the Jacques Loussier Trio in 2000. It can take months and months of work to find these people. It's not so bad nowadays, where everyone's online, but nobody had websites back then. To find him and get him to come here in 2000 was amazing. I had promoters in Australia saying: 'How did you get him to come out? We've been trying for years'.
"The real sense of satisfaction, for me, though, is a house - an audience - coming out smiling. Another source of pride is that the festival has never run at a loss. I think that's pretty extraordinary."
The festival has doubled in size since it started with a $500,000 budget in 2000. This year's festival has a $1 million budget. It usually makes a small profit, in the region of $20,000.
Remarkably, ticket prices have only increased on average by about $5 since the inaugural festival, 10 years ago.
"The Otago Festival of the Arts has never lost money, which is rare in this industry. Every one of our five festivals has come out in the black. It shows that what we've put on is what people enjoy and it works.
"I spend years devising the programme and costing it. The ticket prices are set to cover the costs, not to make a profit. This year there'll be 26 events doing 100 performances, the same as the first festival."
Mr McBryde is leaving Dunedin and the festival to go travelling overseas with his wife, Rosemary.
"It's going to be a bit of a wrench to leave. When I'm gone I might be bereft. But it's time for someone else to have a go and give it a fresh start. It's important that it always has a feel of flamboyance and exuberance and new ideas.
"We have developed an excited and very loyal audience base. We've carved ourselves out a niche in the marketplace and it really does work," he says.
"That's what this festival is all about; we're celebrating the excellent and the extraordinary."
Otago Festival of the Arts Trust chairman Paul Dallimore said Mr McBryde had put the festival on the map.
"Nicholas McBryde, more than anyone, has had a major influence on the success of the Otago Festival of the Arts.
"Since the inception of the festival, his passion and commitment to the role of director has been extraordinary and, without his intuitiveness, knowledge and experience in the selection of acts for the festival, we would not have been able to achieve our triple bottom-line targets of financial, cultural and artistic success," Mr Dallimore said.
"The financial success of the festival has been driven by a director who has tirelessly applied himself to a role that would usually be undertaken by a team of full-time employees.
"Nicholas has put the festival in a strong position going forward," Mr Dallimore said.
Dunedin arts commentator Peter Entwisle said the festival would miss its guiding hand.
"Mr McBryde's wide experience in the performing arts was probably crucial to his success in pulling off this notable success," he said.
"Without him, our arts scene will be the poorer. The city owes him a large debt of gratitude."
The 2010 Otago Festival of the Arts runs from October 8 to 17.
