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

It's not easy to make a career out of music. 

Just take it from Teon Gibbs, a hip hop and R&B artist based out of Kelowna, B.C. 

It was so difficult for him to showcase the work he was doing that he actually launched a music festival and a record label last year to give himself and other artists in that genre a shot at getting their music out there. 

"It honestly came out from a place of seeing how hard it was for me to make any kind of headway in the music industry. No shade to B.C., but the music genres that are dominant are not hip hop, let's say that, not R&B, not house music, not Afro beats," he said.  

"So I was like, let's create something for that."

His festival, Do It For The Culture, is now one of hundreds held in B.C. each year.

The B.C. Music Festival Collective (BCMFC) said that while the community building at music festivals is critical  — especially festivals that feature voices not often represented — more funding needs to be made available to keep them going. 

'Bit of a crisis'

BCMFC executive director Julie Fowler, who has been organizing music festivals for more than 25 years, said her organization is focused on providing resources to help people launch new festivals and share opportunities within the industry. Most of the work they've been doing as of late is helping people navigate emergency situations. 

"There's a bit of a crisis in festivals right now," she said. "It's a really tough time because of the rising costs of operating, it's almost impossible to get insurance for cancellation, especially if you're in a fire zone. The risks are so much higher for festivals now than they once were and the margins are so much smaller in terms of the money that you can generate."

The Ministry of Tourism currently provides $5 million in annual funding to the entire event industry in B.C.

A previous fund, called the B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund, was established post-pandemic. It gave $80 million to more than 3,000 events in 184 communities, delivered over three intake periods. The ministry describes the fund as a one-time grant.

There's an economic benefit with music festivals, Fowler said; a recent Canadian Live Music Association study on the impact live music has on the Canadian economy found that in 2023 alone, live music contributed $10.9 billion to the country's GDP and supported more than 100,000 full-time equivalent jobs.

The BCMFC's latest survey of 51 of its 115 members suggests music festivals in B.C. generate $550 million annually. 

"Pretty much all the money that [they] generate stays in the local economy. I mean, definitely you're bringing artists internationally, but pretty much 100 per cent of all your vendors and contractors are local," Fowler said. 

Community gathering

Having adequate funding is imperative if more people like Gibbs want to launch a festival to support their community, Fowler said. 

That community building, whether it be around a genre of music or a gathering of people in the area, is "vital" for society overall, she added. 

"I think festivals are filling a bit of a role of ceremony and community connection and dancing together, singing together, being together, celebrating together."

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

"Everyone is like, yo, it feels like summer camp for us. It feels like we're just a community," he said.

"I think that's the biggest part of it, man. The educational piece of it allows artists a chance to accelerate their careers, allows young Black music professionals, young people of colour who want to dip their feet into the industry … to kind of see the game for what it is and learn lessons and connect with people who can accelerate you."