Momentum grows to save Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Supporters issue public statement urging members to oppose pending dissolution of the organization; meanwhile, others in favour of the move to dissolve
Photo via Save the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Facebook page/Jordana Cee
A GROUP OF long-time festival goers, board members, staff, volunteers. and artists has issued a public call to save the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
The plea comes in response to the VFMF board of directors’ recent announcement that the event is cancelled for 2023 and that it will ask Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society members to vote on the dissolution of the society at its annual general meeting on February 1. If approved, the move would put an end to the 45-year-old organization.
As reported by Stir, VFMF board president Mark Zuberbuhler says that the board has exhausted all options before reaching its recommendations. Its decision came about due to factors such as post-COVID changes to the production landscape, escalating costs, and greater competition for funding. It would take anywhere from $400,000 to $600,000 to make a 2023 Folk Fest happen—and the VFMFS would need that level of financial infusion every year going forward, the board says.
Among those who signed a January 22 public letter urging members to defeat the pending vote to dissolve the VFMF Society are Vancouver musician Veda Hille, B.C.-based folk singer Bob Bossin, and fest co-founder Gary Cristall. (Read Stir’s interview with Cristall, and others, here.)
“It seems a variety of challenges, mainly around production issues, have led them [the board] to feel there is no way forward without risking a great deficit,” the letter states. “They have kept their doubts to themselves and certainly have not asked the festival audience, or volunteers, or past staff and board members for help in resolving the perceived challenges. We don’t know enough to be able to say whether or not their perceptions are accurate. However, there are certainly different opinions on the issue.
“We feel that this haste to dissolve the society is not appropriate,” the statement continues. “It is easy to dissolve a society, but much more difficult to establish one, especially with charitable status. Long-term public funding relationships will end, the volunteer organization—the heart of the festival—will vanish, and the image of the festival will be forever tarnished.”
The group suggests that the first step in saving the festival is for those who are members of the society in good standing to attend the February 1 AGM and vote against the resolution to dissolve.
The second step, the group says, is to elect a new board ready to look at holding a festival and carrying on other activities as described in the society’s mission of disseminating folk music. “There are experienced people ready to undertake these responsibilities,” the letter says. “Dissolving a healthy organization with a strong track record and large, devoted audience is not part of our plan.”
The letter revives the words of labour troubadour Joe Hill, who said, on the eve of his 1915 execution, “Don’t mourn. Organize.”
“There has been a great deal of sad acceptance of the board’s decision,” the group’s letter says. “There is nostalgia for how good the festival was. This is not the time for nostalgia and fond remembrance. This is the time to organize to defeat the motion to dissolve.”
In addition to Hille, Bossin, and Cristall, the following people signed the January 22 public letter: Anne Blaine, Roger Brant, Roddy Campbell, Valdine Ciwko, Audrey Cook, Jordana Corenblum, Ken Daskewech, Suzanne Fournier, Patty Gibson, Michael Goodman, John Greenaway, Stephen Harrison, Carol Herter, Frank Hoorn, Jessie Johnson, Gwen Kallio, Peter Kidder, Kris Klaasen, Connie Kuhns, Linda McNeill, Lucie McNeill, Rod Mickleburgh, Art Moses, Miriam Moses, Naomi Nattrass Moses, Amy Newman, Sharon Tamaro, Lesley Thompson, and Gordon Watson.
In a festival update at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival’s website, the board released a list of FAQs related to how it came to this point. “The Board knows that for a lot of us the festival is a highlight of every summer and the weekend has become a part of the fabric of our community,” the website says. “We understand that this will be heartbreaking news for many and that you may have some questions….We want to be as transparent as possible about the factors which brought us to the point of proposing the resolution to dissolve the Society.”
The signees of the January 22 letter also run a Facebook page called Save the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. There, some commenters have suggested people reach out to Ryan Reynolds, Seth Rogan, Pamela Anderson, Ani DiFranco, Bruce Cockburn, Kinnie Star, and Joni Mitchell, among other high-profile individuals for help. Some are urging people to write their elected officials.
Still others, however, support the board’s decision to ask members to vote on dissolution of the VFMF Society.
Val Cormier, posting on the public Facebook page as a long-time VFMF volunteer, supporter, and member, says she will be voting for the dissolution of the VFMF Society.
“I encourage you to reconsider framing dissolution as a horrible, unredeemable end,” Cormier writes. “Think of the financial and moral distress this chronically understaffed organization is going through/has gone through….I am satisfied that the current board has worked long and hard to investigate every available option. I trust their work.
“Legally, financially, and for so many other reasons, a fresh start makes a lot of sense,” Cormier writes. “Let's grieve, harness the tremendous goodwill that is out there, and go forward with hope…. I have no crystal ball, but I picture an entire board resigning, if only to protect themselves from further liability. Good luck hiring and retaining new staff, or a board willing to take on all the burdens of past in addition to current and future issues.
“Don't consider it a death, but a chance for renewal. What if dissolution turned out to be the best thing for the future of this festival?” Cormier writes. “Please respect the ones doing the work. It's a tough time for them. I applaud their courage for daring to bring this option forward. I'll vote for dissolution and encourage all other members to do the same.”
Elsewhere, composer, concert artist, and improvisor Randy Raine-Reusch has shared suggestions in the Facebook group on how to cut costs at the festival, including mapping out seating plots in front of the mainstage that are numbered, reserved, and paid for in advance only, put on sale the week after the last festival: “Tickets must be purchased along with them. So die hard and legacy fans can get their spot early, and this brings in cash early,” Raine-Reusch writes.
Other commenters in the Facebook group are seeking more information. Musician Shari Ulrich, who says she has donated to the VFMF’s official page, suggests that “there are many factors at play that we are not privy to”.
“It would be great to know before the Big Vote so we knew where and how to focus our efforts to help,” Ulrich writes. “It's hard to imagine there is simply no solution. But indeed, there are smart and savvy people on the board and I'm sure they've run through a lot , if not all the options to get to this point. I feel if we knew there was hope, and it was truly only a cash flow issue, that we would dive in to save it. But without some facts it's hard to hard to know what is needed.”
Lawrence Mercer writes in the Facebook group: “Broad generalized statements are easy to make. However the FF Board has had plenty of strong members trying to build a sustainable model for decades, and have reached out into the music community, the financial community, and all levels of government to get it this far.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe called The Vancouver Folk Festival needs your help! has been started; so has a Canada Helps campaign.
The VFMF board will make an announcement on February 2 as to the outcome of the vote.
Photo via Save the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Facebook page
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