Seventy percent of new film festivals fail in their first year.

observation — attributed to Laurie Kirby

The festival market looks like a boom from the outside and feels like attrition from the inside. The expense, the liability, and the three-year arc before any margin show up are not optional. Anyone entering the category should plan for a sturdy stomach and a three-year capital plan, not for opening-week press. The founders who survive year one are the ones who underwrote year three before they sold the first ticket. The ones who don't are the ones who confused launch energy with operating capital.

For first-time festival founders and the investors backing them.

failure-rate, capital, expectations, liability