In 2023, the NSW Sapphire Coast’s Four Winds Festival launched and delivered its biggest event to date. So, this year, it’s even bigger, right?

Not so. Growth is a desirable thing, says Four Winds Executive Director Leigh Small, but the future of Four Winds lies not just in growth, but in sustainable growth. “Which is why we’re doing something very different this year,” she tells Limelight.

Four Winds Festival, 2021. Photo © Ben Marsden Photography

“In 2023, Four Winds expanded exponentially under [previous Artistic Director] Matthew Hoy, thanks to all the relationships he formed and the many commissions he established, but the audience didn’t grow at the same pace,” Small explains. “The festival was incredibly successful, artistically-speaking – a world-class festival in many ways – but it became clear when I came to Four Winds last year that we wouldn’t be able to resource something of that scale again in 2024.”

Like all arts and culture festivals in recent years, Four Winds has been operating in uncertain economic conditions and it is...