Eye Weekly: The beer-tent blues
The beer-tent blues
http://www.eyeweekly.com/music/features/article/98529
| quote: | And with the current (Ontario) concert market suffering noticeably this summer, you have to wonder if promoters might already be eager to find new ways to draw in audiences. It’s no secret that Toronto festivals have failed to emulate the European model — hell, after the downsizing of last year’s Virgin Fest, we don’t have any proper multi-day outdoor music festivals at all this summer.
Seeing the immense success and relatively unproblematic execution of Osheaga (Montreal) first-hand, it’s hard not to develop a case of festival envy. And while Farkas doesn’t think the open licence contributes to the success of Osheaga per se, he does admit that it’s a huge draw for out-of-towners from Ontario. On the other hand, and possibly sharing in my envious sentiments, Smid thinks the alcohol situation is integral.
“I think it’s part of the puzzle,” he says. “And I think this is the biggest thing to overcome for festivals to have value to the overall marketplace. Right now, festivals are more of a niche thing; mainstream people don’t go to festivals, whereas in Europe and other places they do. Even if you had a commercial artist headlining a festival in Toronto, you’d have people who would rather wait two years to see them at the ACC. That’s the biggest detriment to making them work financially. [Otherwise] I think what you’re going to get is a B-level festival in an A-level market.”
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interesting article..
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Palm Trees > Pine Trees , Sand > Snow
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