Bear Creek Folk Music Festival gets $87,500 worth of funding from the City

Bear Creek Folk Music Festival will take place in Grande Prairie for the fourth year this Summer, from August 16-18. Taking place in Muskoseepi Park, the festival features four stages.

“The event itself has kind of woven itself into the fabric of the Summer. We have built a huge community of volunteers and fans so I’m excited that the City recognizes that and continues to support it,” says Gordie Haakstad, President of the Bear Creek Music Festival Society Board.

Some of the artists featured in this year’s lineup include Feist, Blue Rodeo, Alan Doyle and Crash Test Dummies to name a few. Various local artists will also get the chance to take the stage at the growing festival.

Thirty artists total make up the 2019 Folk Fest lineup but a wide range in performances will be featured in addition to the folk genre, from rock to country, blues and more.

“The City of Grande Prairie has consistently been our largest backer, financially,” says Haakstad.

He explains that without the grant funding it would be a lot harder to get over that hurdle, for them to become more financially stable.

“We’re doing really well but this obviously is an important part of our funding. Its just shy of one-tenth of our funding, so we could probably absorb it if we didn’t get it, but it would be a lot harder and the event would likely suffer.”

Excluding the new grant, the City has invested $260,000 into the festival over the last three years. $60,000 was awarded in its year of inception and $100,000 has been awarded the last two years in a row.

“Our biggest line item is artist fees. We’re getting top named talent and those fees do cost, and those fees cost prior to the event taking place. As ticket sales continue on, that’s the money that will eventually also go to our contractors both locally and the ones that we have to get elsewhere.”

They Folk Fest points to evidence that suggests the amount of money spent on getting good acts to perform has a direct impact on the economic performance of the Festival as a whole.

The 2018 Bear Creek Folk Music Festival saw record highs.

While funding from the City was approved for this year’s festival, City Council noted at the meeting that the Folk Fest shouldn’t expect funding to be awarded every year as the event continues to grow.

“You look at other events in the calendar year, in the City of Grande Prairie and a number of them are budgeted as actual budget line items. So, hopefully in the future that is an opportunity that we might be able to pursue, where we become one of those items that the City is sponsoring annually, because they recognize the importance of the event,” explains Haakstad.

Bear Creek Folk Music Festival is run by a non-profit organization. The event relies heavily on volunteer support which it gets in high volumes. Last year, 500 volunteers helped make the event possible and this year that number has already doubled.

Volunteers span from across the country and even across the border, with the furthest volunteer set to arrive from Hawaii.

Anyone who chooses to volunteer can attend the full festival for free. Volunteers also receive a festival t-shirt, weekend meals and access to an exclusive after party put on by the festival as a thank you.

Additionally, volunteers along with weekend pass holders get to ride transit free while the festival is taking place.

“We have been aware of people pushing back against the event and it’s not always pushing back against the event, it’s sometimes pushing back against the City helping fund the event but I would say, we have, I think, won over a lot of people because of the type of event that we are putting on. It’s a very community focused event. It’s a very family-friendly event,” said Haakstad.

This year, the Bear Creek Folk Music Festival will also be handing out 500 free tickets to local shelters.

Tickets are reported by the festival to already be on track with last years sales and single-day passes have only just recently come on sale to the public. The Festival expects that both weekend and single-day ticket sales will surpass last year’s.

The Bear Creek Folk Music Festival keeps an emphasis on local involvement. They have a wide range in event support from over 80 local sponsors.

“This is not an event that has ever relied on a major corporate sponsor and we’re quite proud of that,” said Haakstad. He notes that relying on corporate sponsors can have significant impacts on events. Especially, if they ever decide to pull-out and that they are, “very happy with the grassroots sponsorship opportunities that we have got.”

The Folk Fest will be putting on an additional free concert for the public on Thursday night, through a partnership with the Grande Prairie Downtown Association and Better Than Fred’s.

Children under 11 and seniors 80 and over get free admittance to the festival.

Find ticket information and the full lineup of the 2019 Bear Creek Folk Music Festival here.

by Courtney Almeida

Bear Creek Folk Music Festival gets $87,500 worth of funding from the City

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