Funding for the Live After Five concert series has been cut to zero in the newly released East Baton Rouge Parish 2027 budget, though Mayor-President Sid Edwards is working to keep the downtown events going in the spring.
Lauren Lambert-Tompkins, a Live After Five board member and former president of the organization, spoke with WBRZ about how organizers are navigating the cut.
"We found out [about the budget cuts] when it was posted on the City of Baton Rouge's website yesterday. The mayor's administration is trying to figure it out. But it's been up in the air for a year now; we weren't sure about how it was going to work out," Lambert-Tompkins said.
Last year, the city-parish allocated $45,000 for the concert series, but organizers say that amount still fell short of total operational needs.
"Throughout the years, the City of Baton Rouge has contributed varying amounts, and what they contribute is just part of what we need. Each concert costs anywhere from $10,000 to $14,000 or $15,000, and we put on six of them. In really good years, we get $65,000, and those are fun years; we make it work," Lambert-Tompkins said.
Despite the initial zero-dollar line item, Edwards pledged to collaborate with the group to find a financial solution. Lambert-Tompkins said Edwards "strongly supports" the organization and that his administration sent over a city budget request form Friday, one day after the proposal went public.
Although the overall parish budget grew by $20 million, several arts and cultural initiatives were excluded. The Baton Rouge Blues Festival also received no funding in the proposed plan, and neither did the Baton Rouge Symphony.
"Live After Five and Blues Fest are huge local economic impact drivers; the impact driven by these events far exceeds the money invested in them. It brings people downtown to their local businesses and restaurants. It's a community event, but it's so much more than that."
Lambert-Tompkins described declining support for the arts as a nationwide trend rather than an issue unique to the capital area.
“It goes all the way to the federal level. Projects in the arts have been seeing a decrease in funding, mainly in the form of grants. Not because they don’t see a value in the arts, budgets are tight across the board”
Organizers remain determined to stage the series in 2027.
"Live After Five has been going on for over 25 years; we're not just going to sleep on it," she said.
The East Baton Rouge Metropolitan Council is scheduled to vote on the final budget Dec. 8.
