City Council has agreed to double-down their efforts with the Summer in the Park Festival by approving a three-year annual commitment of $80,000 to add some financial stability to the event.
Festival chairman John Strang took to the podium in front of the politicians at Monday night’s council meeting to convince the group to commit to increasing the city’s financial contribution and support a new long-term vision.
“The budget we’ve put together is a very conservative budget - we were very respectful of the ticket purchaser and we wanted to keep that price as low as possible,” said Strang. “To keep that budget where we could attract entertainers and at $29.99 for a wristband, it came with an investment on the city’s behalf of $80,000. Without that $80,000, it would put us in a deficit position.”
After previously kicking in $40,000 for the summer festival, councillors Derek Shogren and Mark King moved the motion to support the committee, give them some financial stability and enhance their investment in the event.
By approving the three-year plan, Strang said he and his team can officially begin planning next year’s event and get a head start on locking down a wider selection of entertainment and other attractions.
For now, the vision is for the increased funding to go towards adding a third night of entertainment, with an emphasis on local and tribute acts to help draw more local participation.
The budget proposal put forward by the committee projects $455,401 of revenues offsetting the $441,850 of expenses for a surplus of $13,551, which includes the $80,000 city contribution.
Included in the expense column is a tentative evening musical entertainment total of $210,000.
“That investment allows the committee to start planning for 2017 and 2018 and it allows us to develop a strategic plan, which is key for us getting funding from the province and the federal government, because without that strategic plan they don’t even want to see an application,” said Strang.
For now, the successful motion calls for the money to come out of the city’s various reserve funds, at the discretion of the chief financial officer.
But multiple councillors continued to lobby for making the Festival funding a consistent line item in the budget, which they will have the ability to do in 2017.
“If we’re into providing a community event here in the City of North Bay, either we’re all in or we’re not,” said Coun. Daryl Vaillancourt. “If you look around at any surrounding communities […] if they have a community event, they invest in it; they don’t talk about the loss of the money - they focus on the event that they put on for their community, the families and the people visiting.”
Just over a month ago, Strang reported that the 2015 edition of the event posted a $109,569 deficit, in large part due to poor wristband sales, weather impediments and loss of sales at the Beer Garden.
Last year, they budgeted for 10,000 wristband sales at a price of $25, but only sold 4,500 at that price plus another 1,100 wristbands at the non-advanced price point.
Now, Strang and his planning committee are taking a more modest approach to wristband-sales goals by using a five-year average for “an achievable yet conservative” target of just under 6,000 wristbands.
“I don’t want to roll the dice anymore; I want to make sure that we go out and that we’re confident with the numbers,” said Strang. “We can’t continue to offer a low price wristband and put an event together without more money, and if the money is not forthcoming from our province, we need to look at the city to keep that wristband low.”
On top of the city’s increased contribution, the group hopes to secure up to $100,000 in provincial grant funding to help add daytime attractions. Strang said having a long-term strategic plan and enhanced programming is usually looked highly upon by the province when divvying up the grant funding.
Last year they were snubbed by Celebrate Ontario and the Tourism Event Marketing Program, but the programming budget doesn’t account for that funding, as it is not guaranteed.
They also plan on purchasing cancellation insurance to help cover the costs incase of severe weather conditions.
This past year, the committee purchased the insurance but ultimately voted against taking the payout when thunderstorms set in, instead deciding to pull the two opening acts in favour of getting headliner Johnny Reid to “protect the integrity of the event.”
The Festival’s reserve fund now shows a negative balance of $155,978 after the event resulted in a $96,040 deficit in 2014, which they offset to $45,923 by using what remained in the reserve fund.
Prior to the previous two years’ deficits, the event recovered all costs for the seven consecutive years since the Heritage Festival.
Future surpluses, if they come to fruition, will be used to pay down the deficit. Once the deficit is paid off, any future surpluses will go back into rebuilding the reserve fund.
The overall economic impact from the festival weekend was estimated to be $6.7 million, with downtown businesses said to experience up to 25 per cent increase in business over the course of the weekend.
The Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Improvement Area have already recommitted to their partnership, while the Ontario Volleyball Association has also expressed interest in hosting another grand slam tournament at the new beach volleyball facility downtown.
The committee’s new plan also calls for a leader with the Algonquin Regiment to take over the daytime programming portion of the event, with the idea of providing free interactive and static displays to the public to pull more patrons to the grounds when the concerts aren’t on.
Strang also said he is hopeful that the past partnerships with the Capitol Centre, Davedi Club, Discovery North Bay, Laurentian Ski Hill and CAA will continue.
“Partnerships are the biggest part of Summer in the Park,” said Shogren. “It’s truly a partnership throughout the community and I think it’s fair to say that [they’re] looking for a commitment from council for the next three years to give the committee some leverage to go out and make the event a success.”
Coun. Mike Anthony was the only one to vote against the motion, echoing his concerns from a month ago that the dollar amount carries too much risk, drawing comparisons to the deficit days of the Heritage Festival.
Similarly, Coun. George Maroosis said his support is conditional on the committee not returning with a third consecutive deficit this time next year.
“If the people of the city are not prepared to support it, then I think this council needs to see there are other ways we can spend $80,000,” said Maroosis. “I would like to see it as a line item in the community services budget, but I won’t be happy if there’s another deficit.”
The committee is still in the early planning stages, but Monday night’s news paves the path for the group to get started on the real work.
