The Denton Arts and Jazz Festival in Quakertown Park will be noticeably smaller this October if proposed budget cuts by the city are approved, an executive with the festival’s parent organization told KERA News.
Kevin Lechler — executive director of Denton Festival Foundation, which runs the event — said he and the president of the organization were called into a meeting with City Manager Sara Hensley in early June and told the $200,000 they receive in in-kind spending would be "greatly reduced or eliminated."
In-kind spending goes toward providing services to an event — such as police, EMS and fire personnel — rather than direct cash to event organizers.
The cuts to in-kind spending are part of a larger effort by the city to cut spending to make up for a $14.5 million budget shortfall for fiscal year 2026. In total, the city is proposing to cut its in-kind spending for special events, like the Arts and Jazz Festival, from $400,000 to $200,000.
“They're in a bind, and I get that, but at the same time it could have been handled so much better,” Lechler said. “We could have been given some time to make adjustments to our budget and our way of thinking.”
The festival last year received about $200,000 in in-kind spending. That’s more than what they received in direct funding from the hotel occupancy tax or sponsorship allocation — $135,000 and $20,000, respectively. The festival is not wholly funded by the city and raises its own money through sponsorships, grants, donations and selling booth space with an annual budget over $500,000.
The hotel occupancy tax — or, HOT — funds and in-kind spending are apportioned out by the Denton City Council's Community Partnership Committee. The money is designed to support events that boost tourism and get people to book rooms at hotels.
Lechler also said they are now being asked to pay the full rental fee to use Quakertown Park. The city previously did not require certain festivals to pay a rental fee for parks, but in 2021 it started requiring festivals to pay 50% of the fee. The city told the Denton Record-Chronicle in 2024 they didn’t have the budget to continue to offer the parks for free.
The event will be held in the park this year, but Lechler added they are considering the possibility of moving it in the future.
“We have to preserve ourselves, and if that means moving out of the park, we're going to have to do that. If that means moving out of Denton, we're going to have to do that, and I think that's sad,” Lechler said. “I think part of the identity of the Arts and Jazz Festival is with Quakertown Park, and I love that, but I just don't think we can maintain it.”
The cuts would affect this year’s festival because the budget for fiscal year 2026 begins on Oct. 1 — just days before the festival begins on Oct. 3. That timeline of four months to figure out how to adjust for the loss of in-kind spending is going to be difficult, Lechler said.
“I hope people are willing to still come out and support the Arts and Jazz Festival, even though it may not be what they're used to seeing,” Lechler said.
The festival still doesn't know exactly how much of their in-kind funding will be lost. Dustin Sternbeck, Denton's chief communications officer, told KERA News that will be determined at budget workshops on Aug. 9 and Aug. 19. The full city council will vote on whether to adopt the budget on Sept. 16.
What’s the city saying?
Sternbeck said the city's resources are not infinite, and city leaders have to spend money efficiently.
"The City of Denton embraces our events and festivals," he said. "It's really a big part of the Denton culture, and we want to ensure that the festivals are not solely dependent on our HOT funds or the city in-kind money."
Council member Joe Holland, who is the chair of the Community Partnership Committee, said he thinks the Arts and Jazz Festival and the North Texas Fair and Rodeo are legitimate events that bring people into Denton to stay at hotels — the whole purpose of the HOT funds.
But he said the council will still likely have to cut in-kind spending for the events due to the budget shortfall.
He also said he’d like the city to come up with a better way to count attendance, which at a free event like the Arts and Jazz Festival can be difficult, so they can accurately know how many police and EMS personnel need to be there.
“We have not accurately charged for what those services cost us and that's the big problem,” Holland said. “Sooner or later, we're going to have to get some real serious numbers that everybody can agree on."
Hensley and council member Jill Jester, who used to be on the board of trustees of the Denton Festival Foundation, previously discussed the challenges facing festivals during the June 17 city council work session.
Jester suggested during the meeting the city should try to mitigate effects of the budget cuts on the festival because they were only given four months' notice of the change. She also said she was told by the organization the festival “may not happen now.”
“I know that we have to make cuts, but at the same time, I think we all have those things that we're seeing in the budget that are just very tough,” Jester said.
Lechler also told KERA News it’s a possibility the festival could shut down operations in the future. But they are still planning on holding an event this October.
Finances and the future
Financial struggles started for the festival in 2021 after they lost two large sponsorships from UNT and Wells Fargo, forcing them to downsize the event. The festival has lost over $200,000 in the years since 2021, eating up reserves and forcing the festival to scale back, according to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
“We've had survival in mind for the last four or five years,” Lechler said. “Just coming through a year and being able to look forward to the next year is kind of a success for us.”
He said the organization is still working on a definitive plan for this year that will be announced later. For now, they’re considering only using the north half of the park and possibly cutting the number of stages from six to five — though he said there’s still a possibility they could salvage all six stages.
“We're doing the best that we can do,” Lechler said. “And all we can do is ask people to not lose faith in us, to keep supporting, and we're going to present as much of an event as we can.”
Dylan Duke is KERA's summer 2025 SPJ news intern. Got a tip? Email Dylan Duke at dduke@kera.org.
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