Buskerfest receives provincial grant
A $9,895 provincial grant from the Celebrate Ontario program will allow Dundas International Buskerfest to create a new family area for this summer’s event.
Buskerfest co-ordinator Lisa Anderson said the grant will fund transition of the event’s fifth pitch area into a family-friendly show area. Exactly what will be included will be finalized after organizers receive a confirmation letter breaking down how much money can be spent where. It’s the second year in a row Buskerfest has received a Celebrate Ontario grant, getting $21,971 during 2017’s Ontario 150th anniversary.
“Last year we concentrated on increasing our Canadian content to celebrate Canada 150,” Anderson said. “This year it’s to overhaul the family area. We want to program this area to have family shows. Sort of an event within the event.”
She said organizers hope to integrate the new family busker zone into the annual festival, and find a sponsorship partner to make it a permanent feature after this year’s financial boost from the province.
“Last year we concentrated on increasing our Canadian content to celebrate Canada 150. This year it’s to overhaul the family area. We want to program this area to have family shows. Sort of an event within the event.”
Six other Hamilton festivals received Celebrate Ontario grants. Because Beer craft beer festival; the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s Moving Pictures; Hamilton Fringe Festival; Supercrawl; Liquid Art Festival and FrancoFEST all received grants ranging from $42,756 to $275,000.
Buskerfest and Dundas Cactus Festival were both named this week to Festival and Events Ontario’s top 100 festivals of 2017. Other local festivals that made that list were the Telling Tales Festival, Re-Enactment of the Battle of Stoney Creek and Winona Peach Festival.
Anderson said an economic impact study of Buskerfest required by Celebrate Ontario provided valuable information for this year’s application — specifically that the number of overnight visitors to Dundas’ Buskerfest has grown by 12 per cent since 2014 — and being able to report that statistic to the province probably helped get this year’s funding.