The Deal (Financial)
“The epitome of underground theatre… a cavernous treasure trove… the spirit of the Fringe is alive, well and thriving in SE1.”
A Younger Theatre
Important Note
The information on this page applies to all productions at VAULT Festival, except the Lates. The Lates’ Financial Deal will be published at a later date.
We want our financial deal to set us apart from other London venues & festivals; we’ve designed & honed our financial deal over the years, always with three key objectives:
- 1. We want to remove financial barriers that prevent artists being able to perform;
- 2. We want to reduce up-front costs that artists usually have to bear;
- 3. We want to fairly reward Artists for their work.
Venue Costs Guarantee
Every slot at VAULT Festival carries a cost to deliver the venue including renting the venue, the tech equipment, freelance technical & FOH staff etc.
We take that cost and divide it into thirds. We commit to paying 2/3 of that cost, which we do so from our split of box office & booking fees. You then commit to paying the final 3rd for that slot.
When artists commit to a slot, they’re committing to cover that cost – we call this the Venue Costs Guarantee. It’s a fixed cost or “overhead” so it’s worth budgeting it from the start.
Importantly, we usually* don’t ask for this money upfront from you, we pay the costs on your behalf to the venues, tech suppliers, and freelance staff. We then settle with you after your run has finished – usually from within your Box Office takings or occasionally via invoice. The aim is to remove financial barriers that prevent artists being able to perform by VAULT Festival covering those costs until after the run has finished.
*The exception is for shows in our smaller (30 seats or fewer) capacity venues, we do require payment of the Venue Costs Guarantee up-front as a deposit. Over the years we’ve found these are the slots that are most susceptible to last-minute cancellations which has made this an unfortunate necessity.
WARNING: If your box office revenue does not exceed your Venue Costs Guarantee, you will owe the difference between your box office revenue & the Venue Costs Guarantee which you’ll be invoiced for after your run has finished.
We then cover our other costs such as core staffing, programming, communications, producing, operations, & security costs from our other income streams such as bar revenue & sponsorship.
The Venue Costs Guarantees per slot in each of the venues are:
| Venue | Sellable Capacity | Venue Costs Guarantee Per Slot (Artists’ Share) | Required to be paid upfront? | (Minimum) Ticket Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Glitch | 29 | £31.00 | Yes | £6.00 |
| Basement @ Vaulty Towers | 30 | £33.00 | Yes | £6.00 |
| Pit | 67 | £135.00 | X | £8.50 |
| Crypt | 75 | £155.00 | X | £8.50 |
| Network Theatre | 80 | £160.00 | X | £8.50 / £13.50 |
| Studio | 85 | £170.00 | X | £8.50 / £13.50 |
| Cavern | 92 | £205.00 | X | £13.50 / £17.50 |
| Cage | 97 | £215.00 | X | £13.50 / £17.50 |
| The Flair Ground | 125 | £320.00 | X | £17.50 / £23.50 |
| Crescent | 170 | £395.00 | X | £17.50 / £23.50 |
N.B. Venue Cost Guarantees for Vehicle Venues, Walking/Promenade Shows, and/or Digital Only shows will be calculated on a case by case basis.
Box Office Deal
We offer all artists a 70 / 30 box office split in the artist’s favour. We offer one deal to all our artists to promote fairness & equity across the programme.
The 70% artist split is a greater split than any other London venue and/or UK fringe festival operating on a similar model that we know of, in a bid to reward our artists fairly for their work.
We operate a Guarantee AGAINST Split model. So we retain & pay forward your Venue Costs Guarantee OR a 30% split, whichever is greater, but never both.
Only once the Artist’s split of Box Office Revenue reaches 70% of the distributable revenue do we retain more than the Venue Costs Guarantee.
WARNING: If your box office revenue does not exceed your Venue Costs Guarantee, you will owe the difference between your box office revenue & the Venue Costs Guarantee which you’ll be invoiced for after your run has finished.
Box Office Commission
4% of the Box Office Revenue is deducted before the Box Office Split is calculated to pay the Box Office Commission and Transactions Charges. We deduct this from the Box Office Revenue and pay it forward to the Bank & Box Office Gateway provider.
Example Seater
We’ve created THIS SAMPLE SEATER which you can download to play with the numbers.
What Have I Missed?
Aside from the Venue Costs Guarantee, there are no compulsory costs to pay to be part of VAULT Festival – no application fees, registration fees, brochure listing charges, or even website listing charges!
Throughout your time with us, there will be optional services & opportunities available to you across marketing, tech, and other departments to make your time with us even better. We deduct these optional services & opportunities from your Box Office takings rather than charging you upfront for them, again to help with your cash flow in order to reduce up-front costs that artists usually have to bear.
As a heads up, there are some legally-bound costs – such as Public Liability Insurance and PPL PRS for use of copyrighted music that you’ll need to factor, but we can help you with those too.
