Calgary Folk Music Festival could face long-term issues due to COVID-19
Executive director says short-term financial outlook OK but 2021 worrisome
The executive director of the Calgary Folk Music Festival says cancelling its four-day main July event will have a huge impact on its bottom line, but says the full financial damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the organization is still unknown as it ramps up fundraising activities and digital programming.
Sara Leishman says she is confident the festival will survive and that festivities will return to Prince’s Island Park in July 2021. But as an operation that holds revenue-generating events throughout the year, budgeting for the future is difficult without knowing how long concerts and live events will be restricted due to the pandemic.
“We are very appreciative and grateful for some of these emergency efforts from the federal government as well as our granting bodies and a handful of sponsors who are maintaining to a greater or lesser degree their sponsorship, this is all very helpful in the short term,” she said. “But, really, my concern around our financial health and budget really has more to do with the mid term and long term. For us, we can get through the year and keep our head above water with some creative approaches. We can do that until the end of our fiscal year, Dec. 31, 2020. What I start to get really nervous about is what our opportunities are to generate revenue in 2021 to start getting things back on track.”
Music festivals and concerts were among the first hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in midmarch and will likely be among the last sectors to be greenlit for recovery, Leishman said.
Ticket sales and earned revenue from the main four-day festival, which was scheduled to run July 23-26, make up 44 per cent of the organization’s budget. But it also relies on concerts throughout the year, with its Block Heater festival in February and rentals of Festival Hall in Inglewood to contribute revenue.
“It’s quite a sticky situation to be in because as much as we’re prepared and we’re ready and trying to figure out the data to budget for recovery, we can’t even do that yet because we don’t even know if recovery starts in the fall or if recovery starts 12 months from now,” Leishman said. “It’s hard to run a marathon when you don’t know where the finish line is.”
The folk fest put out a plea through various social media channels in the past week for donations. While no numbers are available yet, Leishman said there is anecdotal evidence that many 2020 ticket-holders have been willing to donate part or all of their ticket prices back to the organization.
Meanwhile, the festival is making sure it “doesn’t go dark” during this period of uncertainty. With the help of sponsors ATB and Big Rock Brewery, the festival has been holding Isolation Station Happy Hour shows on Thursdays featuring local, national and international acts performing online concerts from their homes. A grant from the Rozsa Foundation earmarked for arts organizations to offer digital programming during the pandemic is allowing the festival to hold a “Virtually Live” six-week ticketed concert series featuring national and international artists. It is expected to start running within a few weeks. Artists participating in both the Happy Hour and Virtually Live events will be paid, Leishman says.
Neither are expected to be major revenue generators, but they do allow the festival to stay connected with both fans and musicians.
As for the July 2021 festival, Leishman said she is hopeful that it will mark a full return. But she admits the lingering impact of COVID-19 is a bit of a “Pandora’s box.”
Because the festival is dedicated to using local businesses for various aspects of the festival, it receives more than $1 million in revenue through in-kind sponsorship over the four days.
“That’s a million dollars of worth of deep, deep discounts from suppliers,” Leishman said. “From audiovisual, to security, to fencing, to event tents and things like that, these businesses may not be in a position to honour the same level of discount. All of a sudden, our expenses go up.”