Squamish Constellation Festival weighs in with its own dire future after Vancouver Folk Music Festival cancellation
Cofounder says cost escalations and the lack of longer-term recovery funding have the concert event desperately looking for an investor “angel”
Sarah McLachlan at last year’s event in Squamish
Kirsten Andrews
SQUAMISH CONSTELLATION FESTIVAL cofounder Kirsten Andrews says her organization is faced with deciding whether to pull the plug on the event in the next two weeks.
The news comes amid an announcement today that the Vancouver Folk Music Festival has cancelled its 2023 event and is holding a meeting to dissolve its organization.
“Our costs in 2022 over 2018 were up 35 to 40 percent due to operational stuff,” she tells Stir. “It’s crippling.” She said those soaring costs will make it next to impossible to launch the multi-genre, three-day event without a substantial and immediate influx of funds.
Constellation is citing many of the same challenges as the Folk Fest did today, including rising prices of portable toilets, stages, power, and fencing—many of them demanding payment up front due to increased competition for services.
Launched in 2019, the Squamish Constellation Festival is a zero-waste concert event that also celebrates art and culture in the heart of the Sea to Sky Corridor between Vancouver and Whistler. Last year’s headliners were The New Pornographers and Sarah McLachlan.
Andrews says the 2022 event could not have taken place without emergency provincial COVID recovery funding—specifically the one-time Festivals, Fairs and Events Recovery Fund. Announced last year by Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Melanie Mark, the $12.9 million recovery fund was aimed at helping fairs, festivals, and events rebuild after pandemic shutdowns.
“We’re really grateful for the funding we received, but the province has been somehow shortsighted in the idea that we would be bouncing back so quickly,” Andrews says. “The funding was only for one year and across the board all governments have been remiss in looking at events like ours—events held over one weekend in the summer don’t have the chance to make money back over the year.”
Andrews also emphasizes it’s time for concertgoers and arts fans to step up—especially after a 30 percent decrease in attendance for the 2022 Constellation fest versus 2019. “People do vote with their dollars,” she says. “We need investment or patronage from somebody who sees the value of the arts and culture and what it does for us in society. That was the first thing everybody went to in the pandemic, for our mental health and community.”
The fest organizer adds she’s heartbroken over the looming demise of the folk fest, where she has been a longtime volunteer. She hopes that Constellation can avoid the same fate—but the clock is ticking and she isn’t overly hopeful.
“The Squamish Constellation Festival has never needed an angel more,” she says. can be reached at (info@constellationfest.ca) or social media channels.
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