After 55 years, the Regina Folk Festival has been shut down.
Since 1969, the Regina Folk Festival has been a summertime staple in the Queen City.
It all came to an end Tuesday when the festival’s board of directors announced its cancellation, including the upcoming one in August.
One local musician, Jeffery Straker, says, “I was really surprised on the one hand, and on the other hand, I knew there were some struggles there that they were very forthcoming about.”
In a statement posted to its website, the board cited the reasons for its decision.
“Ongoing financial pressures from the pandemic, including stagnant or reduced funding, rising costs, and declining ticket sales, have created obstacles we can no longer overcome.”
Straker says the pandemic halted momentum for a lot of events, which he says is hard to recover from.
Get breaking National news
“If (the events) had to pause and not do a year like (the Regina Folk Festival) did, it’s like having to stop a train and starting up the momentum all over again.”
But Straker says he owes the festival for a lot of his local fans.
“A lot of local Regina people first heard me or discovered me or my music-making at the folk festival.”
Straker described the festival as, “Just this really good feel where all these people came together for the sake of music, for the sake of live music, you know, to appreciate it, to absorb it, to feel it. And it was just really wonderful.”
Straker says he will miss the festival
“It was a fixture in Regina, you know, this annual fixture. So it’s sad.”
Music industry expert Eric Alper says the situation isn’t unique to Regina, with festival cancellations happening across the continent.
“It’s not so much that it’s Regina specifically, but in the last three years, the music industry has seen hundreds and hundreds of music festivals across North America go under for various reasons. A lot of it has to do with just the rising costs of everything.”
While it may be a larger trend, Alper is concerned about the ramifications the cancellation could have for the city.
“Every dollar that is spent from a tourist in this city is spent on hotels, and gas, and food, and parking, and the festival also hires hundreds and hundreds of people.”
Those who have already bought tickets are being told to keep an eye on their inbox for refunds over the next few business days.
— with files from Marija Robinson
Comments