Rising costs threaten Canada’s festival circuit

Canada’s longest-running outdoor music festival returns to Sudbury every July, but organizers warn financial pressures are endangering events nationwide.

Canada’s longest continually running outdoor music festival, Northern Lights Festival Boreal, returns every July to Sudbury, Ont., but the non-profit organization is raising concerns about its financial future.

Michelle Murray, the festival’s executive director, said the organization intends to persevere despite mounting pressures.

“We intend to remain Canada’s longest continuously running music festival,” she said. “We’ve been at it for five decades and we hope that there’s five more to come.”

Murray told CTV News that costs have surged in recent years while funding has been stagnant.

“Expenses have risen about 40 per cent over the last couple of years since COVID and grants and sponsorship remain the same,” she said.

‘It’s really concerning’

The financial strain is not unique to Sudbury. Martin Roy, the executive director of Festivals and Major Events Canada, said the pace of festival closures across the country is alarming.

“There were always festivals that, you know, that disappeared, necessities appear and disappear, you know, great on a regular basis and it’s normal – dut at this pace, what we’ve seen in the past couple of years is really what’s frightening,” he said.

“It’s just incredible to see that dozens of festivals have closed and canned, disappeared, paused, cancel or whatever. But we (are) seeing it each and every week.”

Roy said the majority of festivals’ challenges are financial in nature.

“It’s a very simple problem, but at the same time, (a) very complex one,” he said, adding that sustaining a festival requires broad community support.

Roy told CTV News that if people want to raise a festival and want to have a festival that is sustainable, “it takes a village.” He explained festival goers, of course play a part, but it takes the city, it takes the province, it takes the federal government and it takes sponsors.

Cuts come to artists’ budget

Murray said locally, Northern Lights Festival Boreal is reviewing its budget annually to reduce costs.

“We review the budget every year, and we make cuts, and a lot of times the cuts come to artists, the artists’ budget, so the marketing budget, and we try to cut where we can. But there’s certain areas where we can’t cut,” she said.

In a news release Monday, festival organizers said that after this year’s event, it anticipates changes to the budget, ticket pricing and overall scale.

‘Each and every dollar’ spent helps the community

Roy said festivals and major events hold cultural significance and drive economic growth for cities, citing the past Taylor Swift Eras tour and the upcoming FIFA games as examples.

“We have always estimated that for each and every dollar that is spent by a festival goer, like a quarter of this goes to hotels or Airbnb or whatever, and that a third of the dollar goes to restaurants,” he said.

Roy added the economic impact is visible in major events across the country.

“(It) really helps the community when you have, when you see it, you know, when it’s TIFF and Toronto, when it’s the Grand Prix, Formula one, Grand Prix in Montreal, it’s the same,” he said.

Roy has called for increased government support to help Canadian festivals compete globally.

“We need more support to attract events that are going to happen elsewhere in the world. We need to bring them to Canada and we also need to support our domestic events so that they attract more international tourism,” he said.

Festivals and Major Events Canada said organizers are facing financial challenges nationwide, which is why the organization is lobbying the federal government to increase funding for festivals.

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