Chevron calls time on Perth Festival

Chevron’s long-running sponsorship of the Perth Festival will end next year, with the festival expected to seek new corporate backers while continuing to ramp up its philanthropic income.

Chevron has sponsored the festival for 18 years and been its major corporate partner for the past decade.

It will be the community partner for the coming 2023 festival, which will be its last.

Festival executive director Nathan Bennett thanked Chevron for its contribution, especially during COVID when it provided certainty.

“Eighteen years is a wonderful time for this kind of partnership,” he said.

“Fortunately they have given us a long lead time.”

Mr Bennett played down the significance of Chevron being a fossil fuel producer despite other festivals running into controversy for their corporate partnerships.

“Its no secret there is a range of views on that,” he said.

“They have made a significant investment in arts and culture and it has been an excellent relationship over many years.”

Perth Festival’s latest annual report, released this week, showed it earned $1.74 million from corporate sponsorship in the year to June 2022.

After Chevron, its biggest corporate sponsor is understood to be Wesfarmers.

A big focus for the festival has been attracting increased donations from individuals and philanthropic trusts.

This source of income has grown from $280,000 five years ago to $1.66 million last financial year.

Mr Bennett said the festival was budgeting for $2 million in FY23.

The festival recorded total income of $17.1 million last financial year, up six per cent.

Its main source of income continued to be the state government's gaming agency Lotterywest, which upped its operating grant to $7.7 million.

The festival reported a surplus of $607,000, down slightly from the prior year.

Meanwhile, Chevron said it planned to focus on other sponsorship opportunities in the WA community.

It currently supports more than 20 community organisations, programs and events in WA.

These include Scitech, the Premier’s Science Awards, Telethon Speech & Hearing, Zonta House Women’s Refuge, Conservation Volunteers Australia, Onslow School and the Karratha and Districts Chamber of Commerce and Industry.