Festival booklet

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 18

Festival booklet

The distribution of the programme for the 1984 Christchurch festival is the most expensive for a festival programme in the city to date, according to the festival’s events manager, Mr John Page. Mr Page was responding to a letter under this heading from Martin Langridge that was printed in the Letters to the Editor columns yesterday. Other letters on the same subject have also been received. Each referred to comments made by Mr Page in a televised interview. Mr Page said yesterday that the portion of the interview televised had been severely edited and did not give a clear picture of the methods of distributing the programme. “The colourful and informative brochures have been produced well in advance of the festival dates, giving the Christchurch public good notice of the events,” Mr Page said.

“Forty thousand programmes are being sent to Christchurch households — about 50 per cent of the urban area — the first time direct distribution has been undertaken.

“A further 10,000 copies will be available through libraries, theatres, music shops, galleries, our booking outlets, the Town Hall, and the Arts Centre.

“To distribute to the entire city would be an expensive exercise and one not based on any sound financial or marketing rationale. We certainly do not wish to discriminate against any section of the population. Given our limited financial resources, of which a significant percentage is public money, we have an obligation to proceed with the most cost-effec-tive methods of publicity. “The spread of programme distribution is considerable and any person who has still not acquired a copy by late next week should contact the festival offices in the Arts Centre,” Mr Page said.