Budget as a framework: making your tour viable
I joined the panel at Arts On Tour’s Tour Lab to talk budgets and grants with producers thinking about taking a show on the road.
Here’s what we covered.
Start with the touring version of the show
Before you budget anything, work out what you’re actually touring.
A touring version isn’t automatically a stripped-back one. It’s the version that stays portable without losing what makes the show work.
Ask:
→ Does it fit in a HiAce? A suitcase? Or do you need a three-tonne truck?
→ What scale should you keep because it serves the show - and what genuinely needs editing to travel? You’d be surprised what you can actually keep.
The integrity of the work comes first. If it doesn’t need to run in a black box with three lights, don’t force it there. Shrinking a show until it no longer does its job defeats the point of touring it.
What it really costs - don’t rip yourself off
The most common mistake I see new touring producers make is under-costing to look “affordable.” It backfires.
Put in real costs. Not your mum’s station wagon standing in for freight. Use actual hire costs - presenters expect them, and it’s the only way touring is sustainable show after show, across this huge (logistically nightmarish) country.
Pay people properly. Use Live Performance Australia award rates as your floor, not your ceiling. This is the moment to pay your creatives and artists back - a nod to their time on the original work and their time on this tour.
Knowing your real costs is also what lets you hold a confident conversation with a presenter. You can’t negotiate from a number you made up to seem cheap. Knowing your actual costs prevents future disasters and gives you defined boundaries within which you can explore opportunities. Going into debt over the one part of theatre making that is designed to profit you is not wise.
What actually sits in a touring budget
There are three main areas of a touring budget:
Remount costs → every cost between now and arriving at your first venue. The costs of your Creatives – Director, Lighting Designer for a tour version lighting plan, Sound Designer for any redesigns, Production Designer for the new touring set. This is the time needed for them to make any of those edits they wanted to make to the original season and/or to make the design tour ready. Re-rehearsal – usually a week only, remember – it’s already been performed once so should just need waking up. Equipment hires or purchases. Bump In costs. Rehearsal venue hire etc etc
This is a one-off cost, so split it evenly across all your touring venues rather than loading it onto one.
Running costs → the weekly or per-show cost of keeping the show alive. Wages, insurance, hires, consumables. All your ongoing costs once you’re on the road.
Touring costs → the cost of moving the show. Travel, accommodation, freight, flights or car hire, and allowances.
Touring is a marketplace, and it runs at different scales but all tours will be made up of these three different buckets.
You may need a grant and grants aren’t free money
Grants are a mechanism, not a gift. A funding body is investing in an outcome - and part of your job is to show how you help them achieve their goals by investing in you. Frame your application around what they want to achieve, not just what you need.
A few key programs for touring, in rough order of who they suit:
→ Create NSW – Regional Arts Touring. Your home-state lever if you’re NSW-based. It funds small and large tours across regional NSW (broadly up to $60k for small tours and up to $120k for larger ones), and it funds up to 90% of a tour’s income, with applicants providing at least 10% in other cash or in-kind support. Regional NSW means all local government areas outside Greater Sydney.
→ Creative Australia – Playing Australia. The national touring program, for tours reaching regional and remote communities, with a confirmed itinerary required before you apply and a minimum of three or more locations. Worth knowing: it’s generally pitched at organisations, so as an individual you may need to auspice.
→ State touring funds where you’re touring to - but check eligibility carefully. This is the trap. These funds vary a lot. Touring Victoria supports Victorian and cross-border practitioners touring to or from regional Victoria - so an interstate company can sometimes be eligible. But interstate applicants are no longer eligible under any stream of the Playing Queensland Fund, and applicants must demonstrate the product is from Queensland. So don’t assume. Read each state’s guidelines before you build it into your budget.
On timelines: all of these run in rounds, not continuously, and the dates move year to year. Check the current round before you plan around it - I’m not quoting specific close dates here because they shift.
Remember: If you’re applying for grants you’ll need the tour to be confirmed. Funding bodies won’t fund a speculative tour with approximate dates and flimsy assurances from venues.
Touring is one of the few parts of your practice that can generate real income over time. Get the budget right from the start, and it can fund the work you want to make at home.
Want help getting your touring plan right?
I work with producers and artists on grant strategy, pitch writing, and tour budget development. Find out more on my Coaching page or book a free Discovery Call to see if I’m a good fit for what you need.
Cat Dibley is an arts funding specialist, grant writing coach, and former touring producer with Critical Stages and Shaun Parker & Company. She has toured work across Australia and Europe, and spent over 15 years on both sides of the arts funding table. Based on Awabakal Country, NSW.