Stories from the Edge of Music #44: Start thinking about summer
Next year's festival season starts right now
The planning for next summer’s pop, rock, folk, jazz and blues festivals is already under way. The key part is the search for talent, discussions with agents and artists and managers, and working through the process of building a lineup of artists that you will want — even need — to see in the summer that’s seven months ahead of us.
Some festivals are struggling, or even failing, and the efforts to build the summer events for the best-established ones are being played out against an ominous background of rising costs. How will all this change your festival experiences next year?
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Before I go further, however, I would like to sincerely apologise for the lengthy delay in getting this piece to you. Life got in the way, I had a ridiculously busy social calendar (some of it with festival friends), and I had a serious bout of writer’s block. A family member died, and a dear friend called to tell me — quiet cheerfully, in fact — that he is gravely ill and will not see Christmas.
On top of all that, the trusty giant desktop Mac I write these notes on — decided that it, too, showed signs of excessive weariness and began to misbehave, with the resulting loss of notes for this essay.
The gods willing, this won't happen again. And I greatly appreciate those of you who have stuck around (perhaps reading back issues to make up for the ones I didn’t write on schedule).
I’ve got back on my bicycle. And there will be the customary week to 10 days (not a whole month) before the next edition of Stories from the Edge of Music lands in your inbox.
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WELCOME TO A MUSIC CONFERENCE. WHAT KIND OF CHAOS IS THIS?
Plaid shirted, torn-jeaned, guitar-carrying people — mostly in their twenties — are lined up before the reception desks at the Delta Hotel in the distant Toronto suburb of Mississauga.
The staff, clearly more used to sales representatives and junior businessmen, are non-plussed. These people have credit cards? They’ve made reservations? What’s going on?
What’s going on is the 2024 Folk Music Ontario gathering. Here’s the boilerplate press release: “Established in 1987, the conference has been the largest gathering of the professional folk music community in Canada… it is the premier networking event for the Canadian folk music community, and we (also) welcome international participation by artists and industry delegates.”
There are 800 people crammed into this understaffed, restaurant-challenged hotel. Two-thirds of them are artists, the rest are agents, managers, media people, and — most importantly for the artists — the gatekeepers who organize and book music venues and festivals, mostly in Canada but also in Europe and the United States.
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The lifeblood of music conference events: the showcase rooms
Almost 100 artists are presenting their music in what FMO calls “official showcases.” Here, again, is the blurb: “Showcases are an integral way to facilitate discovery and opportunities for artists at any stage in their career.”
In practical terms, the selected artists have 25 minutes to present four or five songs, hoping that someone with power, connections, or drag can advance their careers — or even book them for a festival. Two stages were set up in the hotel’s ballroom; while an artist was performing on one stage, the next one was setting up on the other. In the basement level, two smaller rooms were used for similar presentations.
I saw a handful of the showcases, and they featured artists I was familiar with. Jadea Kelly (who worked at my publicity company when she was 22, when I didn’t even know she was a singer) played a packed basement room, previewing songs from her recent album.
Russell deCarle, former singer with the late lamented country band Prairie Oyster, was both urbane and charming; Samantha Martin’s band, Delta Sugar rocked. And for sheer stage presence, it would be hard to match blues-based entertainer Shakura S’Aida.
Who did I regret missing? Angela Saini, John Wort Hannam, Meredith Moon (Gord Lightfoot’s daughter), Bobby Dove and Terra Spencer…
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No shortage of festival talent
The fact is that most festival bookers already have a good part of next summer’s events booked by the time this convention is happening,
They’re in negotiations for the major names (from the United States and Europe); festival directors — particularly in Western Canada — have already been talking about block bookings for artists from as far away as Africa.
Some artists were offered gigs last year and couldn’t play them due to conflicting bookings — if they were priorities then, they probably still are and they’re at the top of the lists for the festivals next summer.
And at least one major Canadian event — the Stan Rogers Festival in Canso, Nova Scotia — has already announced a major part of its July lineup. Others are promoting early-bird ticket prices now, for festivals half a year away.
There is absolutely no shortage of talent, regardless of whether bookers are programming pop, jazz, folk or blues festivals. If (miraculously) I was looking festivals again, I’d be looking for Lyle Lovett, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Lukas Nelson, Bobby Rush, Sarah Jane Scouten, Tuba Skinny, Carsie Blanton, Jadea Kelly, Stephanie Trick, Buffalo Rose, the MIP Power Trio, La Bottine Souriante, Larkin Poe, Kaia Kater, Corin Raymond, The Orange Devils… the list, like the road, goes on forever.
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Planning next summer’s festivals isn’t going to be easy
Planning a festival — whatever the musical genre — is never easy. Hovering over it all is something organizers have no control over: the weather. If it rains at a festival next summer, the full effect won’t be felt until next summer — when advance ticket sales will stall until people have a positive forecast. Mariposa went through one of its bleakest periods when I was its artistic director, because it rained for three years in a row, and diminishing audiences caused the major sponsor (which owned the site) to pull out. The next year, in a brand new location, it actually — briefly — snowed.
Choosing and programming talent, complicated as it can be, is relatively easy. That said, it’s a fact that agents — who represent artists and whom programmers have to negotiate with — are, not to put too fine a point on it, getting needy.
You can’t blame them. Their artists, today, are still making less money than they were pre-COVID. And that means the agents are getting less.
But the really hard part — which festival directors and administrators have to deal with — are the rising costs of everything else, in addition to the talent.
Travel. Fencing. Insurance. Security. Staging. Sound systems. Transportation. Tent rentals. Hotel accommodations for performers. Food for artists and staff. Oh, and don't forget portable toilets rentals — they cost more, too.
In Canada, grants from all three levels of government (municipal, provincial, and federal) and arts organizations are getting cut back. If we get a conservative government in the future, those grants may disappear altogether.
South of here, whatever limited government support exists now may well vanish in the Trump era — neither the incoming president and his feckless allies (Musk, etc.) have shown the slightest interest whatsoever in cultural supports for arts, literature, music, or festivals. There, National Public Radio will be starved; in Canada, the leader of the Conservative party has already set aim at the CBC.
While some festivals in Canada are “on hiatus” (Kingsville, Vancouver Island) others are feeling the pressure of increased competition. The exceptional Calgary Folk Festival took a hit last summer when the Calgary Stampede suddenly increased its music programming mere weeks beforehand. Next year, Shania Twain will be part of Stampede, and that’ll take a truckload of money out of the marketplace.
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How will the problems be solved?
First, ticket prices will increase, probably by as much as 20 per cent.
Secondly, festivals will widen the definition of the music implicit in their events’ titles. (The Ottawa Blues Festival, for instance, presents more than 80 acts each summer, but hardly any of them can be considered blues artists.)
There’ll be more blues and world music in jazz festivals, more jazz and blues at folk fests, and more acoustic folk at blues events. Following the Ottawa Blues Festival’s example, more pop artists will be seen and heard at festivals that seem — by title alone — to be more specialized in their musical approach. And the massive pop festivals will include more “niche” musical genres.
Definitions of “folk,” “jazz,” “blues,” etc., will be stretched almost to breaking point, in an effort to attract wider audiences.
Thirdly, expect to see fewer “fly-by” headliners, especially from the United States — major names who show up, play their standard sets, get paid, and leave. The exchange rate between the U.S. and Canadian dollar doesn’t encourage festivals to hire American artists.
Fourth, local artists will have more opportunities to play festivals — usually their fees are lower, they can stay at home and they don’t incur travel or accommodation costs. And the best of them can be very, very good.
Festivals will increase their year-round activities; several have been doing this for several years.
Next, expect festivals to be more “commercial.” Festival boards will pay even greater effort to acquire active sponsors and will offer them more opportunities to promote their products and/or their corporate identity. This is a two-way street; sponsors will demand more than festival may want to give, but they will cave — the income is desperately needed. Similarly, sponsors will demand more than some festivals may be prepared to give.
Lastly, budgets will be examined with fine-tooth combs, and expenses will be cut to the bone. The difficulty will be to do this without damaging hard-earned reputations that have already been built — and to maintain the ever-present need to give the audiences the event they have spent good money to enjoy.
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VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Almost accidentally, I just found the documentary on the 1990 Mariposa Folk Festival. It’s a stunning reminder of the time — and you can see interviews and performances by the Violent Femmes, Emmylou Harris, Murray McLauchlan, Danny Lanois, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Buddy Guy, Willie P. Bennett and dozens more.
Your Substack writer makes several brief appearances, including one in which I brazenly lie to the media about the presence of Bob Dylan at a previous Mariposa. The whole thing runs an hour, so keep the link and watch it when you've got the time.
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GRAFFITI OF THE WEEK
“Why do music clubs put toilets in the cocaine stalls?” — A question on a washroom door at Toronto’s Painted Lady (one of my favourite bars).
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NEXT TIME
For 18 years I was a delegate to MIDEM, then the largest music conference of them all — recording and publishing biz, hijinks, and (every now and then) actual live music. Honestly, I have to write these memories down, especially since MIDEM, then held every January in the south of France, no longer exists.
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FINALLY…
You all have LOTS of Substacks to read, and most of us can only pay for a few of them. I don’t put good stuff behind a paywall to encourage “free” readers to upgrade to paid —I tried that, and it didn’t seem to work.
That said, in a few weeks I might put some personal stuff behind a paywall for the good 90-odd folk who have paid subscriptions. Could be stuff I’d share with a shrink (if I had one): childhood, two failed marriages, the friends who have my back, and even (ha!) what’s left of my sex life. Might be fun, and it would certainly be cathartic for me!
Stories from the Edge of Music now has nearly 775 subscribers (80 in the last month; where did they all come from?) If you feel you can contribute $6 a month (Canadian!) that would be cool — it certainly helps my old-age pension and pays for the coffee I drink while I think up these stories.
Glad you're back, Richard. And thanks for the fascinating look behind the curtain of programming music festivals.