At a Vincent Community Board meeting this week the board released $26,000 for this year’s event, which it approved last year on the condition the committee met certain criteria.
The festival is held on the fourth weekend in September, but this year the Saturday of that weekend is September 23, the date of the general election. The festival used to coincide with the first weekend of the school holidays, but this year the holidays begin on September 30.
In March, the committee considered moving the event to the last weekend in September, but decided against it as many had already made plans around the original date.
Festival event manager Martin McPherson said the committee was being a "bit more conservative" this year with its spending on entertainment and in terms of projected ticket sales.
"Having the election on the same day will possibly have an inefficiency. It’s hard to tell.
"It’s usually the first week of the school holidays, but this year it’s a week early. While you won’t get as many people who come here on holiday, you might get more locals who go away for the holidays."
Last year’s festival resulted in a net surplus of $16,330 and the committee’s total equity at the end of last year was $126,340.
The committee ‘‘spent up large’’ on entertainment last year as it was the event’s 60th anniversary, he said.
"Last year was magic and people are still talking about it."
There was a record number of food stalls, but a similar number were expected this year as many businesses were venturing into food trucks.
The parade was "always a struggle" as building large floats was time-consuming, Mr McPherson said.
"Another struggle is finding a building to put floats into."
The festival was also developing a relationship with the "steampunk fraternity" and it was likely there would be tea pot races in the parade this year.
