On Wednesday, February 6, the TR Days Society made the decision to cancel Grizfest for 2019.
“For the past 17 years the TR Days Society, a small group of dedicated volunteers have worked community, the largest of these being Grizfest Music Festival,” said the press release that was sent out. “The past few years, the TR Days Society has struggled to find adequate funding. This is the case for 2019. As a result Grizfest Music Festival has been cancelled for 2019.”
However, all is not lost. The Society will continue working on obtaining funding for 2020 as well as hosting other events during the year.
This includes next week’s Anti-Valentines dance, February 15 at the Community Centre.
Funds from this and future events will go towards a future festival.
“The TR Days Society would like to thank all of the artists, sponsors and volunteers that have worked with us and supported the festival during the last 17 years. As a volunteer committee we rely on sponsors and volunteers to make this festival happen.”
The Tumbler Ridge Days Society (TRDS) was asking the District for $150,000 in Grant in Aid for this year, while council counter-offered $90,000.
This would have left the Society $60,000 in the hole.
“That’s a large amount for the taxpayers to take on,” says Mayor Keith Bertrand. “Doing an analysis on the last three years, every year is in the negative. In my opinion, something needs to change.”
Council has discussed how much they were willing to support the festival in a series of meetings over the last few months; most members of Council were willing to support the festival the same as last year, or about $90,000.
Bertrand says he supports the festival. “I’ve volunteered [for Grizfest] as well. I do enjoy the weekend. It brings a lot of out of town people to our town to spend money here, but council needs to have a look at whether the town is willing to support it. It’s a tough call. $150,000 is a lot of money. If the majority of tax payers aren’t supporting it…it’s a pretty tough decision to go forward.”
Councillor Norbury agrees that he supports the festival, and that it is a good thing for the community. “When we look at what our community can do for its residents, this sort of festival ticks off all the boxes. It’s arts and culture, it brings in tourism, it provides another activity for residents, and it can help us help our local businesses without violating the community charter. We put money into this festival and it brings people in who spend money at the businesses.” But, like most of the rest of council, he believes the ask is too high, especially with the festival consistently losing money.
Councillor Howe doesn’t agree that the festival is the best thing for the town, though he, too, was willing to support the festival at last year’s levels. “I sit on the other side of the fence. I don’t think it’s the best thing for Tumbler Ridge. I don’t think it’s the best use of our money. There’s absolutely no way you can sell me on $150,000. If it wants to continue, it needs to get back on its own two feet.”
The Tumbler Ridge Days Society is the non profit group responsible for putting on Grizfest Music Festival. Last year’s festival saw a couple outside factors affect ticket sales, says Cosgrove.
“Grizfest 2018 saw lower than expected crowds. Alabama played to a sold out crowd of 5,000 people an hour away, and a new festival started in Prince George the weekend after. This was a devastating blow for us. Neither of these things could have been prevented on our part. Our line-up was in place by February and neither of those were public then.”
Despite these setbacks, Cosgrove believes Grizfest is important for the community. “Grizfest is the number one event to bring tourists to town,” she says, “and it has been for 17 years now. August Long Weekend boosts the economy of Tumbler Ridge. Hotel and restaurants see a dramatic increase in revenue that weekend. TRDS itself spends between $7,000–$9,000 on hotel rooms alone.”
Rather than let the festival die, she says the society believes the event should be built on. “We should be celebrating the two biggest events we have in town by including more activities between Grizfest and Emperors Challenge,” she says. “The biggest complaint we hear every year is ‘what is there to do here’? We need to give people options. Not everyone wants to go hiking. We have such a unique community and we should show it off so people want to come back.”
She admits that festivals can be a mixed bag in terms of generating revenue. “Not every event makes money. Grizfest has struggled for years. We apply and fight for funding and grants every year. In 2016 for example the Grande Prairie Stompede lost $360,000 in revenue. Since then, the City of Grande Prairie has created a “Large Scale Tourism Fund” allocating $200,000 for festivals and sporting events that attract at least 35 percent of their audience from places more than 100 km away. Bear Creek Folk Festival received $100,000 last year and was hoping to break even for the first time. Also, the Encana Event Centre is subsidized by the City of Dawson Creek.”
The bottom line, she says is festivals like this cost money. “Funding Grizfest is an investment in our town,” she says. “It is the longest running event here and longest running Music Festival in the North. Festivals come and go, but Grizfest is still here. We need the diversity of revenue brought into the community. Tourists to spend the night, go out to a restaurant and eat, shop and enjoy this beautiful community we call home.”
In the end, though, the amount the District was willing to support the festival to wasn’t enough to assure that the festival could keep going.
“We are not blaming anyone for this,” she points out. “The Society itself runs great, and Grizfest was great. The problem was attendance. We have showcased world-class talent on ourstage and Grizfest now has quite a reputation in the Canadian music industry. This was a very difficult decision for the TR Days Society board and was not taken lightly. We hope to take this hiatus to regroup and to also find a more permanent location.”
The announcement elicited an outpouring of sympathy and support for the festival, including from Darby Mills, former lead singer for the Headpins, who has performed at the festival twice. “I’d like to let GrizFest, those who ran the show and those who volunteered that I am so sorry to hear this news,” said Mills. “THANK YOU for having the Darby Mills Project and even farther back the Headpins at your festival.
I hope that next year things can find their way back to the days of Rockin the night away with some great old ROCK AND ROLL. Till then all the best and ‘Don’t stop keepin’ On!'”
