Who owns a festival?

I joked one time to a friend who was putting on a public special event that he needed to "own the event." Someone needs to.

Festivals and special events are held in communities, small towns and large cities worldwide. Have you ever thought about who actually owns the event?

Typically there are  scenarios.

1) a local government will create the event and will produce/promote the event with city staff.
2) a local government will create an event and contract with a production company or a non-profit to produce the event
3) an organization or company, not associated with local government, will produce the event, even possibly pulling in other organizations, such as non-profits (church, school, civic). The organization can be a school class, Sunday school group or a neighborhood.

You can't have an event without money. You have to spend some up front, during and then pay bills afterwards. The management of the money should be clearly stated in relationship to the body which created the event and the one which produced it. Something should be in writing as to who owns the event, particularly for insurance and financial liability.

Otherwise, questions about. I've run into these scenarios several times. When questions arise, they tend to put a cloud over the event. That hurts attendance and revenue.

MARKETING TIP: Create a paper trail when you're producing an event. Make sure all the stakeholders know their role, who the decision makers are and who is handling the funds. Once all that is in place, you will move forward with a good event.