Festivals on the brink of COVID-19 collapse asking for federal aid
Summer festivals and fairs across the country are facing an existential threat from COVID -19 and say they need federal government support.
That plea came Wednesday after those extravaganzas were left out of an $82-billion aid package approved in the House of Commons.
And it comes at a time when the Calgary Stampede and Calgary Folk Music Festival continue to consider the possibility their marquee events could be cancelled this summer.
An organization representing 700 of the mostly rural exhibitions and fairs — including the Stampede and other large urban festivals — say the cancellations of many of them could prove lethal to their survival and require federal grants to keep them alive.
“We’re really worried because it’s a seasonal industry so there’ll be a limited chance of recovery, we can’t run them in the winter,” said Kristina Franc, spokeswoman for the Canadian Association of Fairs and Exhibitions.
“It’s a really scary time for us.” In many parts of the country, those fairs and agricultural societies are socially and fiscally crucial but often ignored by governments when they fall on hard times, said Franc.
The events, she said, aren’t eligible for the just-announced federal relief funding because of their non-profit status.
She said the need for social distancing has led “a lot of them to take action to voluntarily close,” said Franc.
“A 10 per cent wage subsidy in that (federal) announcement isn’t going to save those fairs.”
Franc didn’t have a number for the exhibitions’ and fairs’ effect on the economy, but said that in 2008 the figure was $1 billion.
On Wednesday, the annual three-day Tail Creek Mud and Music Festival near Red Deer announced it was cancelling this year’s gathering at the urging of provincial health authorities.
“Our hearts are broken over this cancellation but we know it’s in the best interests of the fans, artists, staff and the community,” a statement on the website of the late June rock music and motorsports extravaganza said, adding ticket costs would be refunded.
The Calgary Stampede said it’s not as vulnerable as the smaller, one-time annual exhibitions because it’s also sustained by 1,200 year-round events on its exhibition grounds.
Stampede spokeswoman Kristina Barnes couldn’t say when a decision on the fate of the July 3 to 12 event would be made, but added its resiliency after the 2013 southern Alberta flood isn’t a yardstick given the dangerous volatility of the novel coronavirus.
“This is a difficult situation and, like all of our community members and partners, the Stampede is focusing on how to navigate through this evolving global concern in the interest of maintaining longer-term sustainability for the organization,” she said.
The Calgary Folk Music Festival is still weighing the feasibility of carrying on with its July festival on Prince’s Island.
“We’re nimble, we do have the ability to push that decision a little later,” said festival executive director Sara Leishman.
But she said organizers are “cautiously optimistic” the 41st festival will be staged this summer, though it’s dependent on the progress in fighting the novel coronavirus.
While the folk fest is backed up financially by its February Block Heater event and its Festival Hall, losing its main event for a year — with a four-day attendance of 52,000 — would hurt, said Leishman.
“It’s our most significant revenue-generating event so it would be painful,” she said, adding the festival brings in about $2 million annually.
Officials with the Department of Finance Canada weren’t able to comment Wednesday.