Gov. Ron DeSantis defended vetoing virtually all funding for arts grants, saying he didn't want state funds supporting sexual-themed festivals. He singled out Fringe Festivals, which draw thousands to Florida each year.
"We didn't have control over how it was being given. So you have your tax dollars being given in grants to things like the Fringe Festival, which is like a sexual festival where they are doing all this stuff," DeSantis said at a press conference. "How many of you think your tax dollars should go to fund that? Not very many people would do that."
While DeSantis didn't single out a particular festival, several were set to receive arts grants this fiscal year before DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts funding,
The biggest such festival was the Orlando Fringe Festival, which could have received more than $70,000 in state support, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The Alliance for the Arts in Lee County, which organizes Fringe Fort Myers, expected more than $61,000, and more than $7,000 was going to the Tampa International Fringe Festival.
Molly Rowan-Deckert, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Arts, considered DeSantis' remarks "horrifying." She also said they were grossly inaccurate. For her organization, no state grants directly benefit the Fringe Festival, which sustains itself on ticket sales, but the loss of grant funding threatens staff positions and the economic foundation of the arts nonprofit.
"He's talking about wanting to expel woke ideology from the state of Florida, and I think he's conflating the arts with woke ideology," she said.
She voiced a concern that DeSantis judged Fringe Festivals without ever attending one. Acts aren't chosen to be provocative — and certainly they are not exclusively sexual. For Fringe Fort Myers, various artworks that struggle to find other avenues apply to be part of the festival and organizers draw the entries at random.
"It's a dangerous assumption, and unless you have experienced it, how do you know what an arts festival is?" she said. "But also, if you don't like a show, don't go."
That said, programming at festivals certainly includes controversial and risqué acts. Fringe Fort Myers featured a TransMasculine Cabaret and a show called "Cock Talk," a male version of the "Vagina Monologues." That said, it also included banjo performances and a family art lab.
The Orlando event will include a presentation of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Programming often is more experimental than edgy. The event will also feature PitchBlack, a play about a blind jazz artist, performed with audiences in total darkness.
Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat, said regardless of taste, the festivals also serve as an economic engine.
"I attended Orlando Fringe this year and do almost every year — it's a popular international event that attracts tens of thousands of people from across the country and state," she posted on X.
"It features independent artists, drag performers and other forms of artistic expression that DeSantis has wanted to censor despite courts telling him otherwise. DeSantis once again shows his true colors and disdain towards the LGBTQ+ people and First Amendment. This veto also impacts economic growth for all communities. By the way, just because arts groups are approved for funding doesn't mean they even get funding! Depends on where they score and what money the legislature allocates."
Indeed, organizations must still undergo a rigorous application process that validates the need for spending and demonstrates benefits to the state.
But DeSantis said this is as much about the state having to verify that the money supports worthy projects.
"I have to be the one to stand up for taxpayers and say, 'You know what? That is an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars,'" he said.
"I think the Legislature needs to re-evaluate how that's being done. To say that somebody who is working hard and paying taxes, I can go to you and say we have a very small budget compared to our state's population and we have a low tax burden and all of this, but these roads are important. I can sell that. Education is important. I can sell that. Preserving our natural resources is important. I can sell that. I can't sell the Fringe Festival to taxpayers, nor would I want to try and sell the Fringe Festival to taxpayers."
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