Council covers $4,849 shortfall for Vermillion Shakespeare Festival after state grant pause

The Vermillion City Council approved a one-time payment on May 19 to cover a reported $4,849 shortfall for the 2025 Vermillion Shakespeare Festival after the South Dakota Humanities (Arts) Council temporarily paused grant award notifications.

Greg Huckabee, president of the festival, told the council the group normally received $5,000 annually from the South Dakota Arts Council and had a $10,000 carryover from the prior year that was exhausted this season after the unexpected pause in grant awards. Huckabee described the festival as a 13-year-old, free program that provides evening performances of Shakespeare plays plus daytime workshops for elementary and high school students and programs at local care facilities.

Festival organizers said they were seeking emergency funding to meet the current budget and emphasized a need to identify a new revenue stream for subsequent years. Rich Holly, festival treasurer and a council member, confirmed the remaining gap was $4,849 at the time of the meeting. Councilor Cheeseman moved and Councilor Price seconded a motion to fund the full shortfall. The motion passed by voice vote.

Festival leaders said the request was intended as a one-time gap-filling payment and that the organization intends to pursue other funding sources for future years. Staff had provided historical attendance figures and budget context in the meeting packet.

Council directions: staff to process the payment; festival to pursue additional funding sources for FY2026.

Votes and context: festival representatives noted the fiscal year runs July 1–June 30 and that their programming is free to the public; city council members praised the festival’s local economic and cultural contributions.