It 'makes life worth living': Winterruption organizer postpones festival, calls to support the arts

The Winterruption music festival, a winter staple for many in Saskatoon, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Winterruption combined indoor musical acts with outdoor winter activities in hopes of getting people outside during the cold months.

Kirby Wirchenko, the Broadway Theatre's executive and artistic director says this year's festival was well into the planning stages when they decided to cancel their winter plans due to rising COVID-19 cases in the province.

"It's not rocket science," he said. 

"How, in good conscience, could we have said: 'O.K. folks, eight weeks from now, we're going to try and gather many, many of you, whether it's outdoors or indoors, it's just not the responsible thing to do."

Active cases in Saskatchewan have jumped significantly over the last month, climbing by almost 400 per cent. There were 4,550 active cases Dec. 6 compared to 911 active cases on Nov. 6. 

Of those active cases 1,476 — roughly 32 per cent — are in Saskatoon. 

Wirchenko notes organizers are hoping to host the festival in spring of 2021, but say there are numerous factors to be considered. 

"We'll try hard to make something happen for spring if we can modify it and get something on the ground that not only feels good and fun, but feels safe," he said. 

Organized by the Broadway Theatre, the festival saw more than 8,000 people attend the event in 2020. Organizers say it's grown substantially in its relatively short lifespan of five years, with the potential 2021 event marking year six.

Public support poured in for the Broadway Theatre earlier this year during its "Broadway Here To Stay" campaign, which raised a total of $167,000 for the community theatre through a combination of philanthropic, business and community support. 

However, with building costs alone pegged between $65,000 to $70,000 annually, Wirchenko said the funding is a big help, but will only go so far.

When asked what people can do to support the festival, he said people should think bigger and do their best to support Canada's arts and culture community as a whole.

2021 will be "a wash" for many venues and businesses like the Broadway across the country, Wirchenko says, and said now is the time for supporters to stand up.

"Many festivals will be at threat in [2021] and any arts and culture business worth its salt is under threat right now, and for the next 18 months, will continue to be," he said. 

"So if your [readers] want to support Winterruption, or support the Broadway, I would just say make the question bigger and say: 'How can we support arts and culture in general?' because it's what makes life worth living."