Looming fate of troubled N.L. Folk Festival is 'disappointing,' says tourism minister

As the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival faces what could be its last season, the province's tourism minister says he's willing to work with organizers to see if there is a way forward to save it.

Last week, Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society board president Julie Vogt said financial constraints and missed core funding meant it was likely this year's festival would be the last, and the society itself would also shutter.

The festival runs from Friday to Sunday at Bannerman Park in St. John's.

Tourism Minister Fred Hutton called the situation "disappointing."

"At the end of the day, while it is a, you know, sort of a staple, if you will, in the music industry in the province and has been for 49 years … we were dealing with tax dollars here," Hutton told CBC Radio's Weekend AM.

"I've told others we're willing to work with them to see if we can get through this."

Prior to taking over his current portfolio, he said the Crown corporation Celebrate N.L., which is overseen by the tourism department, gave the Folk Arts Society $100,000 so the festival could go ahead.

Since 2022, he said, the department has given the Folk Arts Society approximately $475,000.

Hutton said he's meeting with the society and ArtsNL sometime this week to discuss the problem "to try to find a path forward."

"We don't want to see this go away. We want to work with them to see if there's some solution to save it and to keep this, you know, this almost 50-year-old event going," he said.

Hutton said the province has many festivals and groups who request funding from the government, adding it was similar to his previous post as minister of transportation and infrastructure.

"We would need trillions of dollars to do everything that would be asked for. And maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but [it's] a lot more than we actually have to allocate each year," he said.

"We operate within a certain amount of money and we got to make sure that what we're spending is in the best interest of the taxpayers who are footing the bill."

Hutton said he needs to see a more "viable" structure in place at the Folk Arts Society, and that Vogt has said the society doesn't have that in place at the moment.

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