More music festivals — and funding — helps create a sense of community, industry leader says

Courtney Dickson · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 28, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

It's not casual to marque a vocation retired of music. 

Just instrumentality it from Teon Gibbs, a hep hop and R&B creator based retired of Kelowna, B.C. 

It was truthful hard for him to showcase the enactment helium was doing that helium really launched a euphony festival and a grounds statement past twelvemonth to springiness himself and different artists successful that genre a changeable astatine getting their euphony retired there. 

"It honestly came retired from a spot of seeing however hard it was for maine to marque immoderate benignant of headway successful the euphony industry. No shadiness to B.C., but the euphony genres that are ascendant are not hep hop, let's accidental that, not R&B, not location music, not Afro beats," helium said.  

"So I was like, let's make thing for that."

His festival, Do It For The Culture, is present 1 of hundreds held successful B.C. each year.

The B.C. Music Festival Collective (BCMFC) said that portion the assemblage gathering astatine euphony festivals is critical  — particularly festivals that diagnostic voices not often represented — much backing needs to beryllium made disposable to support them going. 

'Bit of a crisis'

BCMFC enforcement manager Julie Fowler, who has been organizing euphony festivals for much than 25 years, said her enactment is focused connected providing resources to assistance radical motorboat caller festivals and stock opportunities wrong the industry. Most of the enactment they've been doing arsenic of precocious is helping radical navigate exigency situations. 

"There's a spot of a situation successful festivals close now," she said. "It's a truly pugnacious clip due to the fact that of the rising costs of operating, it's astir intolerable to get security for cancellation, particularly if you're successful a occurrence zone. The risks are truthful overmuch higher for festivals present than they erstwhile were and the margins are truthful overmuch smaller successful presumption of the wealth that you tin generate."

The Ministry of Tourism presently provides $5 cardinal successful yearly backing to the full lawsuit manufacture successful B.C.

A erstwhile fund, called the B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund, was established post-pandemic. It gave $80 cardinal to much than 3,000 events successful 184 communities, delivered implicit 3 intake periods. The ministry describes the money arsenic a one-time grant.

There's an economical benefit with euphony festivals, Fowler said; a caller Canadian Live Music Association study connected the interaction unrecorded euphony has connected the Canadian system recovered that successful 2023 alone, unrecorded euphony contributed $10.9 cardinal to the country's GDP and supported much than 100,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The BCMFC's latest survey of 51 of its 115 members suggests euphony festivals successful B.C. make $550 cardinal annually. 

"Pretty overmuch each the wealth that [they] make stays successful the section economy. I mean, decidedly you're bringing artists internationally, but beauteous overmuch 100 per cent of each your vendors and contractors are local," Fowler said. 

Community gathering

Having capable backing is imperative if much people like Gibbs want to motorboat a festival to enactment their community, Fowler said. 

That assemblage building, whether it beryllium astir a genre of euphony oregon a gathering of radical successful the area, is "vital" for nine overall, she added. 

"I deliberation festivals are filling a spot of a relation of ceremonial and assemblage transportation and dancing together, singing together, being together, celebrating together."

That's thing Gibbs has heard from attendees — some performers and observers — of the Do It For the Culture festival. 

"Everyone is like, yo, it feels similar summertime campy for us. It feels similar we're conscionable a community," helium said.

"I deliberation that's the biggest portion of it, man. The acquisition portion of it allows artists a accidental to accelerate their careers, allows young Black euphony professionals, young radical of colour who privation to dip their feet into the manufacture … to benignant of spot the crippled for what it is and larn lessons and link with radical who tin accelerate you."