December 22, 2024
This past year has been one of the most difficult for many festivals and events in Canada. As 2024 draws to a close, and despite highly targeted measures in the Fall Economic Statement, the Festivals and Major Events (FAME) coalition reiterates the need for greater government support, particularly at the federal level, without which challenges are likely to worsen throughout the sector, all across the country.
As we’ll recall, in March, the difficulties faced by the Just for Laughs Group led to the cancellation of the Montreal and Toronto festivals. Taken over in June by ComediHa!, now known as Just for Entertainment, the team will offer events in Vancouver, Montreal, and Quebec starting next year. This sort of happy resolution is not the case for all festivals and events, however: FAME has identified over a dozen fallen events that have announced a substantial reduction in their offering, a pause in their operations or the end of their activities altogether.
In Vancouver, the Ambleside Music Festival was not held this summer. In Toronto, citing funding issues, Taste of the Danforth organizers also took a pause, while Caribbean Carnival organizers said the event would not return next year without special assistance totaling $2 million. Also in Toronto, Hot Docs had to settle for presenting a more modest festival, as did the Fringe Festival. In Regina, Folk Festival organizers announced they would attempt to return in 2025, after skipping a year. In September, the organizers of the Kingsville Music Festival (Ontario) announced they would not be back in 2025. In Nova Scotia, the Whirligig & Weathervane Festival was cancelled indefinitely.
Though their 2024 editions were not cancelled, the teams behind other festivals and events feared the worst. In Quebec, the International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu’s 2023 edition ended with a significant deficit, prompting a large mobilization this year and the implementation of a recovery plan. In Edmonton, the team behind the Fringe Festival launched a crowdfunding campaign to save their event. The same happened at Luminato in Toronto and at the Vancouver Jazz Festival, where an executive expressed concern for the future. The founder of the Brampton Jazz Festival also publicly voiced fears for the future and was critical of the fact that the festival had received less funding from the federal government.
For FAME, the challenges faced across Canada are due in part to underfunding by the federal government, which is of course compounded by inflation, as it now costs 30% to 40% more than in 2019 to organize a comparable event. Even so, events supported by a major Canadian Heritage program – Building Communities through Arts and Heritage – have seen their funding decrease year after year. Events that previously received around $110,000 before the pandemic must now make do with roughly $50,000. The situation is no better for the Canada Arts Presentation Fund. Self-generated revenue and sponsorship income have not kept pace with inflation, especially when festivals and events are presented for free, in whole or in part, or at low cost.
In its recent brief to the House of Commons, FAME called for the creation of an economic and tourism-focused program to supplement Canadian Heritage’s inadequate support. The coalition also insisted that the funds added to the two Canadian Heritage programs supporting presenters be integrated into the base budgets, stressing that annual or biennial renewals offer no predictability. The coalition has also held numerous political meetings with the government and opposition parties, with the hope that the 2025-2026 budget will address its requests. The Fall Economic Statement included $10 million in targeted measures that will impact five festivals.
