looking forwards

while recent news that the cathedral's £5m Herritage Lottery bid was unsuccessful will understandably alter their schedule of planned building work over coming years, we've been quietly, anxiously wondering whether any schedule revisions will have an even greater impact on the Festival than expected. Thankfully we have received assurances that the Festival will have use of the Lady Chapel in 2009 (there is a 1% possibility that we won't but that would be a surprise to both sides) and we can still plan on not having the cathedral at all in 2010.
The Lady Chapel, a venue we lose forever from next August onwards, will be sealed immediately after the 09 festival to protect the cathedral's organ while the Herkenrode windows are taken away for conservation. My original planning included commissioning James Macmillan to write a new work for the 2016 Festival when the seven windows were back to their former glory, but that was too far away to be a realistic discussion and was before I knew we wouldn't be able to continue performances there.
What was news to us was that we will probably not have the cathedral again in 2013 due to replacing the entire internal floor. I hadn't really thought to discuss things beyond 2011, but if we can do it once, doing it twice should not be a problem.
That said, I am currently obsessed with juggling what little income we anticpate for 2009 (taking into account the projected impact of current financial markets on sponsors, individual givers and ticket bookers) with what we might be able to afford to programme, and we may find ourselves in the position of radically changing the shape of the Festival, including how we use the cathedral, just to ensure our survival. For arts activity throughout the UK, I imagine survival will be a key indicator of success over coming years.