Quebec wants to tackle the resale of passes for the largely subsidized Quebec Summer Festival so that the event remains accessible to taxpayers, reports the Minister of Culture.
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“We are aware of the problem,” declared Minister Mathieu Lacombe. “I understand the disappointment of some people who put themselves online [et] who were very disappointed at being unable to obtain tickets.”
On Wednesday, all 125,000 FEQ passes sold for $150 were gone in two hours. A few minutes later, hundreds of tickets were posted on resale sites like Billets.ca for more than $400 (see image).
“I think that there are several people who ask questions, with good reason, when events like this, which are largely financed, notably by public funds, find themselves in a situation where tickets are moved to the resale sites at two or three times the price,” pointed out the minister.
Archive photo, Stevens LeBlanc
By “principle”, it is a problem that tickets subsidized by public funds “like those of the Quebec Summer Festival are collected on resale sites,” indicated Minister Lacombe. He adds that the resale seems to be organized by groups on the internet. “It becomes a modus operandi.”
11% of the budget
In 2023, the total budget of the Festival d’été de Québec was $43.8 million and received nearly five million dollars in subsidies (see box).
“We are subsidized, at all levels, to the tune of 11%,” FEQ spokesperson Véronique Bouillé indicated by email. The FEQ is produced by the non-profit organization BLEUFEU.
Find a solution
Minister Mathieu Lacombe recalls that a working group was set up last December to find a solution to this problem.
“The Ministry of Justice, to which the Consumer Protection Office reports, and we have had discussions, and my colleague Kariane Bourassa currently has a mandate to work on this issue.”
Ultimately, this committee will have to establish whether this resale on these sites should be prohibited or not. However, meetings with the groups have not yet started, underlined Mr. Lacombe.
“In this context, I think it’s normal that we ask ourselves the question from the consumer’s point of view, then from the cultural point of view also because we want culture to remain accessible,” he said. -he explains.
MP Kariane Bourassa points out that, for the moment, the committee has only drawn up a list of groups that will be met.
A law…
In 2012, the Quebec government passed a law that prohibits the resale of show or sporting or cultural event tickets at a price higher than the price authorized by the producer of the show or event.
However, the Consumer Protection Office, which ensures that this law is applied to resale sites, has no authority with regard to resale between individuals.
–With the collaboration of Marc-André Gagnon
$4.8 million in grants in 2023
Quebec City: $1.8 million
The Government of Quebec: $1.9 million
The federal government: $1.1 million
*In 2022, the federal government awarded a $13 million grant to the FEQ to enable it to acquire equipment and improve its programming.