Only four months before holding his 39e edition, the Festival international de musique contemporaine de Victoriaville (FIMAV) takes a hard hit: the flagship event for creative and improvisational music in Quebec has learned that it will no longer be able to take advantage of the Colisée Desjardins, where the organization has been fitting out two halls for nearly thirty years, including its largest, with a capacity of 1,000 spectators. “It’s a shock,” admits Michel Levasseur, general and artistic director of the festival, who faces pressing logistical and financial challenges.
Levasseur and his team were informed of the decision by the municipal administration last December 13: due to the new playoff schedule for the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the Colisée Desjardins rink, owned by the Ville de Victoriaville, must be reserved for the local team, the Tigres, in the event that it reaches the finals, the dates of which coincide with those of the 39e edition of FIMAV, from May 15 to 21.
“But it is certain that all of this was decided before December 13, people were informed,” says Michel Levasseur, who regrets having been informed so late. “Considering the importance of the Colosseum in our organization, we should have been notified at least a year in advance. It’s major. His team managed to find two spare rooms, one in the Carré 150 cultural space (850 seats) and the other in the Hôtel Le Victorin conference room (250 seats), thus saving the program of the next edition which will be unveiled on February 9.
Financial losses
However, this upheaval will cause additional production costs for the organization – which Levasseur provisionally estimates “between $25,000 and $35,000” – since the municipality subsidized the rental of the Colisée Desjardins to FIMAV, which must now assume the rental costs. additional fees at Carré 150 and at the hotel. In addition, the move will cause the festival to lose significant revenue since its organization ran its own bars in the two halls of the Colosseum; the revenue from the sale of alcoholic beverages, on which every festival relies to balance its budget, will now be realized by the new requisitioned halls.
The city offered no help or compensation to FIMAV; contacted by The duty, its Recreation, Culture and Community Life Director, did not return our call. Michel Levasseur claims to have “excellent relations with all the city staff with whom we work, in terms of services, but we felt a certain coldness [avec l’administration] since the renewal of our five-year agreement” in 2018, particularly with regard to the Coliseum. “We felt that they no longer wanted to guarantee it to us. »
future trouble
The city also informed FIMAV that the Colosseum would not be available for its 2024 edition and that it could consider returning there in 2025, provided that the event is moved to a new date. A deep reflection will begin within the organization: “Moving the festival? I don’t think so…, replies Michel Levasseur. We already had this debate in 1992 and 1993, when the municipal council tried to interfere in our programming to make it more “popular”. We kept our artistic line, but at the time, we had already considered changing cities. After having done a study with our audience, Sherbrooke was most often highlighted, but today, we are still far from thinking about that. »
FIMAV, which enjoys a prestigious international reputation in the jazz, contemporary music and experimental music circuits, attracts more than 3,000 paying spectators each edition, not to mention some 12,000 visitors to its circuit of sound installations. downtown. Nearly three-quarters of festival-goers come from outside the region, and between 25% and 30% from outside the country. According to the latest studies conducted by the organization (2018), the economic benefits of the festival for Victoriaville amount to approximately $1.35 million.