Klô Pelgag, Helena Deland, Anachnid, the dance company À part and the collective of poets Vagalâme are on display this weekend for the second edition of the Festival Triste, the youngest Montreal festival and the last of this crazy year for the festival environment. However, when it comes time to take stock, festival organizers look downcast: although they had record crowds or were sold out for their cultural events, several of them ended the year with a deficit. and are saddened today by the lack of investment from the different levels of government. The year 2024 will be pivotal, warns the industry, which expects to see festivals disappear in the coming months.
The idea of the Festival Triste came to its co-founder Anne-Julie St-Laurent after a conversation with her friend, the composer and guitarist Joseph Marchand: “We joked that he himself was a sad clown and that the The atmosphere of the festivals was just too festive for his taste. Joseph indicated that what was missing was an event bringing together non-festive works, a festival with more contemplative proposals, focused on introspection, sharing, gentleness”, which do so much good at this time of year when days are getting shorter, this “gloomy in-between” before the holiday season.
The name stuck: it will be a Sad Festival. But starting a new festival as Anne-Julie St-Laurent and her colleagues did means moving forward with a strong headwind, recognizes the woman who also acts as co-general director and co-founder of the BleuBleu Festival, in Carleton- on sea.
In its fifth edition, the Gaspé music festival experienced the same summer of 2023 as its peers, small and medium-sized festivals, in the region or in large centers: all the event organizers consulted in recent weeks claim to have welcomed number of festival-goers… but having completed their festival with a budget deficit. “We experienced our best edition in terms of attendance, but we experienced our first deficit,” she regrets.
The Grouping of Independent Regional Artistic Festivals (REFRAIN) has the same reading of the situation. When we cautiously emerged from the pandemic, in the summer of 2022, “we wondered if the public was going to be back – and they were – but even more so this year, which was the real season of recovery, or a return to normal,” says Patrick Kearney, president of REFRAIN and general director of the Santa Teresa festival in Sainte-Thérèse. He confirms in the same breath that several of its members wrote their financial statements in red ink. “It remains a real challenge to organize a festival these days. »
Inflation
Several factors have contributed to weighing down the finances of Quebec festivals, explains Kearney. “The challenge that we all face, and that all Quebecers also face, is the increase in costs linked to inflation, which is hitting us hard. » Although the majority of festival organizers have managed to manage the labor shortage, all have nevertheless had to deal with the salary increase for technicians and security agents, the increase in equipment rental costs, the fees paid to artists. “Even more expensive groceries appear on our expense account,” adds Anne-Julie St-Laurent.
In addition, inflation is hitting after two years of pandemic during which festival organizers had to work miracles to keep their team close to them or set up “slimming” editions, which were inevitably not very lucrative. “It’s certain that, financially, for many, the pandemic has been hard,” says Patrick Kearney. Nobody got richer coming out of that, especially since today, financial aid is less generous than it was during this period. [Le REFRAIN] warned our interlocutors, in particular the federal government, that we should not evacuate emergency aid measures too quickly, since we are all still hurt by the pandemic. »
The latest economic statements presented by the federal and provincial governments have not reassured festival organizers, “even if we are not talking about a new budget as such,” adds the general director of REFRAIN. After benefiting from a significant boost of $400 million – half of this sum intended for “major festivals”, the other for “community festivals and events”, then specified the Canadian Association of Arts Organizations (CAPACOA). ) — and the creation of a post-pandemic recovery fund of $300 million over two years managed by Canadian Heritage and covering the fields of arts, culture, heritage and sports, the festival community is campaigning for better investment.
Small tips
The association of multidisciplinary broadcasters RIDEAU reacted earlier this week to Minister Freeland’s economic statement by expressing the “anger and incomprehension” of the cultural community in the face of the silence on the renewal of the additional fund of 8 million dollars in the programs of the Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF), initially planned for two years (2019-2020, 2020-2021). “Without this announcement, these organizations fear that reductions [d’aides financières] of the order of 23% take effect from 1er April 2024, unless the 2024-2025 budget corrects the situation at the last minute. »
RIDEAU joins its voice to those of around thirty other Canadian organizations of presenters, “essentially show programmers and festival organizers”, including the members of the Regroupement des events majors internationals (the REMI, bringing together the International Jazz Festival de Montréal, the Quebec Summer Festival, the St-Tite Western Festival and Igloofest, among others).
The aid is considered all the more necessary as the number of festivals has increased in Quebec in recent years, more quickly than the amounts allocated to government aid. Over the past year alone, REFRAIN has seen its membership by 10%, going from 88 events in fall 2022 to more than a hundred today. A dozen REFRAIN member festivals have existed for less than five years. Patrick Kearney summarizes the issue as follows: “The financial aid pie has more or less remained the same size in recent years, but the number of festivals wanting to eat it has increased: either we all receive a smaller slice, or some have their aid cut. »
Does this abundance of events, combined with the public’s ability to pay, create saturation of the festival scene? “I don’t think there are too many festivals,” Kearney refutes. Of course, there will be as many as audiences and communities are able to take, but I think the main thing to recognize is that the music ecosystem has changed. » In this era where records no longer make money, where online broadcasts make little money, he believes, live performance is the main source of income for artists. However, notes Kearney, “there have not been many more concert halls and presenters in the last ten years; on the other hand, there are many more festivals”, therefore more opportunities for musicians to earn a living. “The ecosystem has changed, but I am not convinced that its financing is today adapted to this new reality. »
The year that is ending has sounded the alarm in the festival community, believes Anne-Julie St-Laurent: “For most organizers like us, this is the first time that we have been confronted with a situation like this -there. I imagine that the organizations of the other events had, like us, a little nest egg, just in case, from which we had to draw. With the BleuBleu Festival, we can still present two loss-making editions before having to throw in the towel. »