Earlier this week, acting festival committee chairman Tim Cadogan said the 2009 festival had made a "significant loss".
He declined to comment on the amount but said the financial details would be disclosed at the committee's annual meeting on March 1.
The festival made a loss of $38,325 in 2008 and of $22,983 in 2007.
Approached by the Otago Daily Times for comment yesterday, Dr Macpherson was surprised three successive festivals had lost money, but said he still judged the event a success.
"You need to draw a distinction between whether it makes or loses money, and whether it's successful.
I think the last two years the festival has been very successful and is certainly worth keeping.
Its profit or loss is not a measure of its success."
"There's lots of good things about it.
If we lost it, we'd mourn the loss and someone else would be quick to pick it up."
The Central Otago District Council was not represented on the festival committee but the Vincent Community Board was.
The board also provided some annual funding for the event.
"So my comments are made as an outsider, so to speak.
I'm not sure where the blame lies for the succession of losses.
The individual events which make up the festival all seem popular, from the arts exhibition through to the senior festival queen contest and all the other elements."
The committee members were hard-working and it was a "big ask" to organise the festival -one of Otago and Southland's biggest events.
"The revenue on the Saturday [the float procession day] has been declining as [crowd] numbers have gone down and I'm not sure why that is, although the weather has certainly played a part."
The event celebrated its 50th year in 2006 and, since that milestone was reached it, seemed to be harder to recruit new volunteers for the committee and to work behind the scenes, Dr Macpherson said.
"Much of the old guard have fallen away."
Leading up to the 50th festival, questions were asked about the event's future.
"I think it has to keep re-inventing itself to keep people interested, but again, I think it's been doing that and has introduced some successful innovations, such as the very popular WoolOn show," Dr Macpher-son said.
It was started in 1957 by the Alexandra Jaycees to raise funds for community projects.
The first one attracted a crowd of about 10,000 and raised money to build the Centennial Pool in the town.
Over the years, many projects were boosted by festival proceeds, including facilities at Molyneux Park and the Pioneer Park.
Based on a survey of participants, it was estimated the 2008 festival generated $1 million for the local economy compared with $1.4 million in 2007.
Contact Energy became the naming rights sponsor in 2005 and has continued its involvement with the festival.
Contact's communications manager Jonathan Hill yesterday declined to reveal the level of sponsorship, aside from saying it was a "significant investment".
"Being part of the festival is our way of making a contribution back to the community."
Contact would continue its contribution in some form, regardless of the future of the festival, he said.
