Last year may have been a difficult one for Roots and Blues Festival organizers, but everyone is looking ahead with renewed commitment and energy.
Artistic director Peter North looked back and forward in his written report to the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society’s Jan. 20 AGM.
North reviewed some of the issues he faced in his first year onboard, arriving in midstream and working with a partially built slate.
“That the festival was booking a lineup with a significant cut ($100,000) in place for the talent and artistic lineup led to some major challenges,” he says, noting organizers managed to present a festival with a solid, credible and broad talent pool that cut across a wide spectrum of the folk roots tradition.
“We stayed on budget for the talent portion of the festival budget and, since the end of summer, there has been much discussion about what we presented and how we presented the artistic component,” he said, noting there were unexpected ‘bumps’ and personnel issues with the festival he had not expected when he signed on.
But North credits the strong team of Cindy Diotte and Scott Crocker for their backing and is looking forward to the year ahead.
The Toronto Blues Society’s 2015 Maple Blues Award winner, North has also attended several conferences – Breakout West in Winnipeg in October, the Music and Film Festival Conference in Austin, Texas and the Toronto Blues Summit, with costs for the Toronto and Winnipeg conferences picked up by their respective organizers.
In Winnipeg, North sat through three days of roundtable discussions with other artistic directors from across the country, tackling subjects ranging from artistic budgets to audience development, government funding, block booking and the dip in attendance at most Western Canada festivals last summer.
He says the Blues Summit hosted by the Toronto Blues Society is invaluable for the connections and for rolling out the “complete landscape of the Canadian blues scene.”
For 2015, North promises a lineup that will have a balance of blues and world-music sounds ranging from Afro-Cuban, to West African, to Celtic.
“Names that have made top-10 lists on National Public Radio (NPR) will be in place alongside a handful of artists that have sold millions of records,” he wrote. “We will also be well-represented by younger regional singer-songwriters and younger artists from this country and the U.S, playing soul-injected music and jam-band influenced sounds.”
Marketing will be a key element in the 2015 festival’s success, North said, noting ensuring music-lovers in Kamloops and Kelowna are well aware of the festival will be a priority.
He also plans to expand the reach by attracting audiences from Washington and Idaho, something that might have great merit this year considering the low Canadian dollar.
That same falling dollar, however, could impact the festival’s ability to book acts.
Organizers are also looking at which components of past festivals will be included in this year’s event, including Routes and Blues.
Although popular, North has concerns about the program’s overall merit to the festival and says it’s time to stand back and assess its value.
“Artistically, I thought Routes and Blues was strong and I thought all the halls are nice venues,” he says. “But I think the general assessment is it takes a lot of energy to put them on, and when they’re right before the festival, they take the eye off the festival itself.”
