It seems like every week, there’s news of another music festival going out of business or on hiatus. The current climate, both culturally and financially, just doesn’t seem amenable to events that bring together numerous artists and fans in the way that music festivals do. The situation for individual concerts has changed as well, with popular international artists mounting massive tours with ticket prices into the multiple hundreds of dollars while less-well-known artists struggle to bring in an audience for much more modest sums and local artists play for just tips. We certainly saw this dynamic in play with our Cascadence festival this year.
As we look ahead to the future, we are still committed to presenting creative music in the Northwest, but we’re looking for ways to do it that are sustainable and within our means. After much discussion, we’ve decided on a strategy we hope will work.
Rather than presenting a single big event each year, we plan to stage regular events at venues that have proven friendly to the music we promote. There are a number of consequences that go along with this decision.
First, we won’t be able to invite national and international artists as we have in the past. What we can do is help out touring bands who want to play in the area and just need a local boost and connection.
Second, we will be working with venues other than theaters, which have expenses out of our reach. Luckily, there are a number of locations in the area that have proven amenable to our non-mainstream sensibilities.
Third, we are no longer able to maintain non-profit status. We are eternally grateful to our partners at Shunpike for all they’ve done over the years. They gave us the boost to accomplish some amazing things that we could never have dreamed of without them. However, booking a series of small events at various clubs that have their own ticketing systems just doesn’t fit in with a non-profit model.
We are open to a future in which things change to the point where festivals are once more a practical reality, but we must live within our means, and we hope our long-time attendees will be willing to come along with us in this next phase of our existence.
We hope to be making announcements soon for our first events, so stay tuned.