It looks like commitment, careful spending and reshaping have crafted a future for the Roots and Blues Festival.
Brenda M’Clellan secretary and member of the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society board, says that with a lot of hard work, it looks like the festival broke even this year – a far cry from the doom and gloom of a year ago.
“In each of the areas, we’re above where we were in 2014, due to the city giving us extra money,” M’Cllelan says, noting the society did get a gaming grant, but because there was no Routes and Blues this year, it was scaled back a bit. “But we had increased the raffle (price) so it provided us with additional funding and helped close the gap. Each raffle was $20 and it netted about $12,000.”
M’Clellan says the improved financial picture is also thanks to in-kind sponsorship from the community.
“We go out to the community and they responded in a wonderful way,” she says, pointing out in-kind sponsorship increased to $175,000 from the previous $100,000. “We offered them new opportunities and things to do, such as feeding the volunteers as well as other products we get and adding shade… all of that put us ahead.”
On the expense side, M’Clellan says about $100,000 was shaved from the budget.
“We were able to turn things around; we’re still a bit challenged on the final bottom line and we do not have a positive net income,” she says noting the drop in the Canadian dollar was a huge issue as many of the artists are paid in U.S. dollars. “We have plans in place for the next three or four months and expect to be there next year.”
M’Clellan referred to the new and fresh look at the festival that included adding buskers and clowns along with a slate of great performers.
While credit for the artist lineup goes to artistic director Peter North, many of the new innovations were thanks to David Gonella, who returned to the festival after a two-year absence.
“I designed it to hide the stuff that we removed; my whole idea was that everywhere you looked, there was something to engage our patrons and we’re gonna build on that next year,” he said. “A lot of people said having fewer stages afforded people the opportunity to see more acts.”
Gonella says his patron engagement plan was designed to remove the feeling that festivalgoers were walking through an outdoor mall on their way from one stage to another.
“This is really a team effort to make this happen; Peter (North) was on the same page – even the ideas I had like Levis,” said Gonella of hanging jeans to provide shade. “Peter was in agreement, I think he just wondered how I was gonna do it.”
Gonella spent over a decade as a director/producer in film in San Francisco and Vancouver, but says he never got enough work. Prior to returning to Roots and Blues, he was a guest co-ordinator of the Vancouver International Film Festival.
“For me, I’ve heard nothing but positive comments about how smooth everything was operating,” he says, noting that even during set-up and tear-down, people were hanging out and enjoying themselves. “That was something that let me know ‘hey, we’re doing something right.’”
Another indication people were happy was that the Sunday night volunteer party was packed with between 300 and 400 people celebrating.
“Generally, it was the kind of year that people were telling me before they left that they want to come back,” he said.
Back in Edmonton last week, North said he is hearing the same kind of positive comments.
“The ripple that I hear from other communities is that we did a bang-up job; people dug the presentation and improvements to the site,” he said, noting the comments are also coming in from the artistic directors of many other festivals who were here in August. “What I think, quite frankly, is that 90 per cent of the audience has gone away and told people ‘I’m going back again next year and you should come too.’”
North says the great thing is the people who are shelling out the money are the ones saying those things rather than the organizers.
“David and I have a killer relationship, we work well together,” he said, agreeing with Gonella that administrator Cindy Diotte rounds out the well-oiled team.