Penny Ashton won the Iron Chicken award for best performer at the World Buskers Festival in 2018.

The World Buskers Festival made about $150,000 this year in what could be the final event under its current name.

The surplus comes as the working title for next year's revamped event – Boulevard of Outrageous Delights – outrages one prominent festival performer.

Festival director Melissa Haberfield said she was pleased with the financial result, although the accounts for the January event had not yet been finalised.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/STUFF The World Buskers Festival at the Arts Centre in 2018.

The surplus would be a turnaround for the festival, which lost $115,000 in 2016 and $160,000 in 2017. The losses led to a review of the 25-year-old festival and a raft of proposed changes, including a new working title for next year's event – Boulevard of Outrageous Delights.

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"It is great that we ended up achieving a really good result," Haberfield said.

STACY SQUIRES/STUFF Melissa Haberfield has been the World Buskers Festival director since 2016. She says the festival made a surplus of about $150,000 in 2018.

"We stuck to a very careful, realistic budget and we learnt from the challenges of the previous years. We are very proud of the result."

Haberfield and festival artistic producer Tim Bain leave their roles at the end of March and the trust overseeing the festival will be dissolved.

ChristchurchNZ, which now oversees the festival, has called for teams to pitch for a new event management and delivery contract to run the revamped festival in 2019.

This year's Iron Chicken winner for best performer, Penny Ashton, said the proposed new name was "nonsense" and "ripped off" from Adelaide's art event, the Garden of Unearthly Delights. The Christchurch performer has appeared at the festival numerous times since 2005.

"This festival has been built on the back of those buskers and then these people come along with their marketing speak and burn it down," she said.

"The name is terrible. The World Buskers Festival is a huge brand. It is throwing out the baby with the bath water. I don't understand why council would buy the festival and then completely change it.

"It lost money for two years in its 25-year history and they just throw it out?"

ChristchurchNZ general manager for attraction, Linda Falwasser, said a new brand was needed to ensure the festival was financially sustainable.

"The model that had been running was no longer sustainable. It had to be bailed out a number of times," she said.

"The sponsorship has fallen significantly, which tells you that the brand and the name is no longer working. Something needs to change."

"Everybody wants to see a festival like this continue ... The new bold vision for Christchurch is articulated in the working title."

She said the accounts for January's event were not yet finalised.

"We are still working through with the trust and Melissa on the final accounts," she said.

"All indications are looking good at this stage. I couldn't confirm how good until the trust produces the final accounts."