Vancouver Folk Music Festival won’t return for 2023, as board moves to shut down 45-year-old event
Board cites increasing costs, greater competition for funding as it asks members to vote on dissolution of VFMF Society
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival has been a fixture in Jericho Beach Park each summer. Photo by Eric Scott, courtesy VFMF
Archival image courtesy VFMF
THE VANCOUVER FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL won’t be happening this summer—and the iconic 45-year-old Jericho Beach Park event may soon shut down forever. The VFMF Society’s board of directors will ask members to vote on the dissolution of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society at its annual general meeting on February 1.
The board has agreed on a recommendation to members that the VFMFS cease operations by the end of March 2023 to help ensure the society meets its fiduciary obligations. That would mean the end of one of the city’s biggest festivals: since its founding, the event has grown to become one of Canada’s most successful folk fests, drawing more than 30,000 to 40,000 people each summer before the pandemic hit.
Today’s announcement cites post-COVID changes to the production landscape, escalating costs, and greater competition for funding as some of the challenges that make continuing the festival this year impossible.
Even if the society were to get a “surprise” infusion of funds today, according to the fest, it would be too late to produce the large-scale, multistage, outdoor concert this summer. 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, according to VFMF board president Mark Zuberbuhler.
Zuberbuhler tells Stir that the board explored and exhausted all options before reaching its recommendations.
“I can assure you this is a very difficult decision for the board to come to,” Zuberbuhler says in a phone interview. “Everyone who is on the board is a very passionate supporter of the festival, and this is definitely the last thing we wanted to do.
“We just really feel that our role as a board is that we are responsible for the festival, and we think this is the best step to take all things considered,” he says. “Unfortunately, it has come to this, but part of why we’ve decided to do this now is that we can do it in an orderly fashion. One of the things we have to ensure is that all of our liabilities are taken care of.”
Increasingly difficult post-pandemic environment
Following a two-year pandemic pause, the Folk Fest ran at a reduced scale in 2022. It decreased the number of daytime stages; had shorter hours; offered 20 fewer musical groups; and had no kitchen for volunteers and artists, no Folk Bazaar, and no West Gate. However, even these changes did not significantly offset costs for expenses such as power (about $80,000) and fencing ($45,000).
In the wake of COVID shutdowns, the fest found that several of its suppliers had gone out of business. Competition for some of its basic requirements, such as tents and portable toilets, had increased from industries like construction and movie production in other parts of the province. As a result, several costs went up to anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent from the previous year.
There’s another pandemic-related factor: unlike in the past, many suppliers and contractors now require payment up-front. This presents a cash-flow problem for the festival, which used to be able to wait until box-office revenues had come in to pay many of its partners.
In its efforts to continue with the festival, the society says it looked at several possibilities, including alternate site options, increasing ticket prices, partnering with other festivals, attaining major sponsorship, and further reducing the festival size.
The board notes that it was able to produce the 2022 festival in large part because of COVID-related grants that are now no longer available.
The VFMFS receives municipal funding and has asked the City of Vancouver for increased revenues; however, the fest states that “in recent years they have worked toward including more festivals and arts organizations into their funding”. The festival also receives grants, “significant” provincial and federal funding, and private funding. However, even with these sources and the corporate sponsorship that the fest has had for the last several years, the funding gap has become too large to cover, and competition for financial support has risen across the board.
“For example, if you look at the City of Vancouver—or any kind of government—and all of the different organizations that they support, there’s just so many other things happening, and there’s only so much support and resources that can be allocated to every individual festival or event,” Zuberbuhler says.
Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
Zuberbuhler says the board has been grappling with the fest’s future ever since last year’s event wrapped up.
“It was after the festival last year, in August, that we could do the financial analysis and we were able to finalize the cost involved in producing the festival,” Zuberbuhler says. “We began the conversation at the board as to what we could do, because even though it was very successful last year in terms of crowds—and it was a great lineup and it was really great to see everybody back and enjoying the festival; that was such a great experience for all of us—when we began exploring how it all went from a financial perspective, we began to see some real issues.
“Our costs went up astronomically, and on exploring all of the funding opportunities we may have or potentially may have, we just saw a large gap between the actual costs and the revenue we could potentially bring in in various forms,” he continues. “We spent several months discussing it as a board and going through many different options, and then we decided at the end of that process—which I can say was not rushed; it was very methodical, and we really all want this [festival] to happen—but we just didn’t see any possibility and made that tough decision to do this.”
Founded in 1978 and first taking place in Stanley Park before moving to Jericho Beach Park, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival has become a defining feature not only of the local arts community but of Vancouver itself. Performers from near and far over the decades have included Bruce Cockburn, John Hiatt, Townes Van Zandt, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Loreena McKennitt, Stephen Fearing, Lucinda Williams, Hawksley Workman, Ani DiFranco, Iris Dement, Feist, Sarah Harmer, K’naan—the list goes on; in 2022, headliners included The New Pornographers and Allison Russell. Many emerging artists have gotten their first taste of performing in front of large audiences at the fest. Add in the food trucks, eclectic vendors, beer garden, impromptu dancing, and stunning location at Jericho Beach Park, and there’s nothing like it.
“My favourite memories of the festival are the Saturday night,” Zuberbuhler says. “It’s a beautiful summer night, usually the weather is nice; you have that gorgeous vista of mountains and downtown Vancouver; you’re on the beach at the ocean, and then there’s these incredible artists performing. I would always think at that time, ‘It just doesn’t get better than this.’ Having those kinds of thoughts, it’s really a challenge to make this kind of decision, but we’re trying to be realistic.
“We have hundreds of volunteers that have really been very supportive of the festival; we have all of the artists that really enjoy and appreciate the opportunity to perform; we have all of the production-site staff, all the agents… This is a major event in the summer calendar,” he adds. “We know it will impact people. It’s been around for 45 years, and it’s been a major part of the summer in Vancouver.”
For the past two years, the festival has been operating with just two paid full-time staff members. Since the festival will not be happening this year, those two employees have received notice of layoff.
Folk Fest’s future to be announced on February 2
All members who donated $35 or more and indicated that they wish to join as Festival Members by December 31, 2022 are eligible to vote on the dissolution of the VFMFS at the February 1 AGM. It is considered an "Ordinary Resolution", so it needs only a simple-majority to pass.
On February 2, the VFMF’s board of directors will make a public announcement on the future of the festival. (Stir will continue to cover this story as it develops.)
When asked if there have been tears over the decision-making process at board meetings, Zuberbuhler replies: “Definitely”.
“There still are, even at our last meeting, because it’s tough,” Zuberbuhler says. “I think about this a lot, because this is something that’s been very important to me. I really love the festival and it’s hard to be the messenger of difficult news. As a board, it was really hard to come to this point because we all really believe in and are passionate about the festival.
“So it was a very difficult decision to make, but once we made it, we got onto the process of how we are going to accomplish this,” he adds. “As a board, we said ‘This is what we recommend as the best step to take at this time.’”
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