Ojai Festival Regains Financial Solvency, Popularity : Arts: This year’s less avant-garde program sells out. Large donations help create a cash surplus.

When last year’s Ojai Festival turned out to be the least popular in the event’s history, and its debts the highest, organizers wondered if there would be another festival at all.

There was talk of not holding the internationally known 45-year-old celebration of nontraditional music this year, said Joan Kemper, the festival board’s current president.

But organizers decided to go on with the show, adding the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and a small parade Saturday complete with bagpipes and kilts to draw festival-goers, many of whom turned away last year when the avant-garde program was announced, Kemper said.

The board also decided to hire renowned festival director Christopher Hunt, hoping that his talents would generate more donations.

It worked, because at least financially, this year was the best in history, Kemper said.

The festival ran up a $150,000 debt last year that has been paid, Kemper said. And for the first time, the board will begin the next round with “a little cushion in the bank.”

Last year’s debt was caused by lower ticket sales, lagging donations and cost overruns, Kemper said.

But a donation of corporate stock that was later sold for about $140,000 cleared the festival’s debt, Kemper said. The stock was donated “within the last 60 days,” she said.

The program of works by 20th-Century American composers wasn’t popular last year, Kemper said, and this was reflected in private contributions and government grants that totaled only $180,664. Attendance last year was down about 25% from the year before, and ticket sales were off about $30,000, Kemper said.

This year, officials decided on “a nice safe program for a nice safe community,” festival director Hunt said.

“I thought the program last year cut off a lot of people,” said Charles McDermott, chairman of the arts department at Thatcher School in Ojai. “I think you can be nontraditional without too much avant-garde,” he said.

McDermott, an Ojai resident who attended last year’s festival, said Saturday night’s concert was very well received by the audience. The audience was also more diverse this year, he said.

“I think you had a lot of people who attended the festival for the first time and could still understand what was going on,” he said.

This year’s more traditional classical music program will mean more private donations, Kemper predicted. The festival will receive about $350,000 in government grants and private donations this year, she said. The festival is sold out and organizers are expecting about $90,000 in ticket sales. The festival has an operating budget of $450,000.

In addition to the stock that helped pay off the debt, another large donation received from a board member should get the festival off to a good financial start next year, Kemper said.

The board member, who asked not to be identified, donated a piece of commercial land that will be sold, Kemper said. Part of the money from the sale will go into an interest-bearing account for operating expenses next year and part will be earmarked for an endowment fund, she said.

Kemper would not reveal the value of the land, but Allen Urban, the board’s treasurer, said it was appraised at $200,000.

If the two financial angels had not come through, the debt would not have been paid for at least two or three years, Kemper said.

Normally, festival organizers must borrow from a bank to cover expenses and repay the loan with donations, but the board probably will not need a loan next year, she said.

“We’re really looking good.”