Quebec’s independent music venues breathed a sigh of relief last Tuesday during a meeting held during the showcase festival Phoque OFF, after representatives of the Société de a new financial assistance program designed specifically for them. Effective from 1er next April, this program, which replaces the emergency assistance offered during the pandemic, marks the first real enhancement of the role of small venues across the province.
Recognizing that the network of small independent theaters forms “an important sector for the music ecosystem”, SODEC will allocate, as of the next fiscal year, $1 million per year for three years to small theaters that request it and respond to program requirements. This is a new sum added to SODEC’s overall budget of more than 576 million per year.
Jon Weisz, executive director of the association des Scènes de musique alternatives du Québec (SMAQ), is confident that beyond the three-year deadline, the funding will be renewed, creating lasting support for this vital development sector. artists at the start of their career: “This program is a historic step forward for the recognition of alternative venues, which present more than three-quarters of indoor musical performances in Quebec each year,” he says. That said, I fear that the budget of 1 million per year is clearly insufficient” to meet the needs of the sixty members of the association.
“If we take into account the significant increase in production costs and the increased drop in attendance, there is a real possibility that several venues will be forced to make major cuts in their programming of emerging artists, specifies Jon Weisz. Some have already informed me of their intention to program only safe bets since the economic conditions make the presentation of emerging artists extremely risky financially. »
“Well targeted”
The program was nevertheless favorably received by the thirty hall managers who met on Tuesday afternoon in a brasserie in the lower town of Quebec – it was the largest meeting in the history of SMAQ, an association created in 2018. “It’s a well-targeted program,” summed up one of the interested parties, manager of a small venue in a remote region. The program manages to adapt to the particular conditions in which small venues evolve — the reality of the Lion d’Or, the Quai des Brumes or the Ausgang, in Montreal, differs greatly from that of the Zaricot in Saint-Hyacinthe, the pub- Les Grands Bois show in Saint-Casimir, in the county of Portneuf, or the cultural space La Pointe Sec, in Saint-Maxime-du-Mont-Louis, in Gaspésie.
I fear that the budget of 1 million per year is clearly insufficient
To these different contexts is added the proliferation of commercial activities of some of these companies: if Verre Bouteille, for example, is devoted solely to the distribution of shows, an activity supported by its function as a bar, several rooms outside major centers are also restaurants and inns. This factor complicates the nature of SODEC’s commitment, whose mandate is to support the development of cultural enterprises.
Specifically, this new program aims to “maintain viable and sustainable conditions of access to a set of venues for the presentation of musical performances” in Quebec, to enable venues to “facilitate access to the stage for emerging artists , emerging and developing artists” and to “encourage the professional conditions linked to the programming, distribution and hosting of musical performances”. Over the past few years, SODEC has conducted consultations with members of the SMAQs, producers and presenters of shows, to develop the outline of this new program; a committee scheduled for March 17 will validate the wording, to finally be submitted to the approval of the Ministry of Culture and Communications of Quebec.