Press release from In the Bin
The fate of Australia’s largest touring cultural event has been in the balance over the past two years, with In The Bin announcing late last year that it would be closing its doors for good.
Over the period of two months however there have been a lot of developments, and discussion with state funding bodies and as a result In The Bin is back for 2012. “The last two years have be a challenge for us, but as they say what doesn’t break you makes you stronger.” Jed Cahill Director of In The Bin said. “It is a shame that we have had to shrink our capacity this year, but at least we will not be turning our backs on the regional and rural communities of Australia.” He said.
Over the past two years In The Bin has seen a number of difficulties from the personal health of director Jed Cahill, major infrastructure break-downs, and lack of funding from a federal level. Within a period of five months In The Bin lost its funding from Screen Australia due to its focus on regional and rural Australia, it touring van broke down needing a complete engine rebuild, and Jed Cahill had a tumour removed from his throat. “I guess you could have called it a perfect storm for us.” Jed conceded. “The biggest thing of them all was not even associated with In The Bin, but mentally it took me a good eight months to get my brain back into festival mode after the treatment.”
Still not funded from a national level In The Bin will be reducing its touring locations from 60 per year to 20 or 30, with a focus on states that fund the program. Over the last year In The Bin felt it spread itself too thin with services. “We’re only a small army in comparison to other touring festivals, we have Vikki in the office two days a week, I’m in the office outside of my day job two days a week, and I have a group of three passionate tourers who are ready on call when a location comes up, totalling five part time workers for In The Bin.” Jed Cahill said. “But we pack one hell of a punch when it comes to results.”
It has only been two weeks since In The Bin announced to its communities that it would again tour in 2012 and already there are nine confirmed bookings and another 14 have tentatively booked. Jed contributes this to the service they provide with a combination of a film education program and the festivals. “Over the years our audience numbers have grown from 50 people per location to 500, this is a direct result of our community participation through the education program. 30 students bring their parents and friends to the festival to see the films they have made, they enjoy it so much they come back the next year.” He said “It’s not rocket science, and this is why we get rebooking’s from communities.
In 2012 In The Bin will be working on building its audiences and participants in selected communities, it will also be providing a stronger service prior and after the workshops and festivals in each region. It’s an interesting time for the festival and which will regrow in years to come.