Funding shortfall threatens Brampton jazz festival: founder

The founder of Brampton's largest jazz music festival says he's worried about its future due to a lack of funding and rising costs since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Carmen Spada, artistic director of World of Jazz, co-founded the festival in 2017, when around 60 artists performed in one day.

The free-admission festival has since expanded, with nearly 150 artists expected to perform over three days at multiple locations in downtown Brampton when it kicks off Sept. 6.

But with growing production costs, higher artistfees, grants drying up and fewer sponsors than in previous years, Spada says he's concerned about how many more he can organize.

"This is like a child to me to not be able to keep it alive would be like me watching the death of a loved one," Spada said.

Spada says the organization that runs the festival, B-Jazzed, is struggling to keep up with the cost of putting it on.The festival scaled back this year by cutting some ensembles and might have to consider selling tickets in the future, he said.

"The other easiest way is to shrink: go from three days to two, go from two days to one, lower the quality of your musicians, lower the quality of your production," Spada said. "That's not something we want to do."

The festival's financial troubles are just the latest example of a Greater Toronto Area arts festival struggling to stay afloat. HotDocs, the Toronto Jazz Festival and the Toronto Fringe Festival all reduced programming this year as they continue to recover from losses incurred during the pandemic.

Federal grant dropped 30%, sponsors down to half

Spada says companies and artists are asking for more money than in previous years, which is driving up the cost of booking performers and vendors.

He says production costs alone have doubled, which include stagerentals, production staff, lighting engineersand sound equipment.

At the same time, the group has received 30 per cent less federal grant money compared to 2021, and didn't qualify for a provincial grant it had previously relied on.

Event sponsors also dropped from 23 last year to 12 this year.

"Unfortunately, what suffers is the level of musicians you can go and recruit. So we can't go and make certain phone calls or pay for travel and hotels and visas and all this for a certain level of musician because the funding just isn't there," Spada said.

The City of Brampton is the largest financial sponsor of the festival, according to its organizers.

World of Jazz is part of the city's "marquee" festivals and events, which get an annual $65,000 grant each, the city said in an email.

"Event organizers are responsible to pursue other government funding or corporate sponsorship, beyond the generous funding already provided by the City of Brampton," city spokesperson Kennisha Petgrave said.

Spada says that amounthas remained the same since 2017, which he says he is "grateful" for, but it's not enough to cover all the festival's costs. He says the non-profit is struggling to find more revenue sources to keep up with costs.

Mayor Patrick Brown said the festivalteam does an "incredible job" each year.

"Carmen is extraordinary and nothing stops him from putting on an amazing festival," Brown said in an emailed statement that didn't address questions about the funding shortfall.

World of Jazz has been receiving funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage since 2021, the department said in an emailed statement. Although, the amount hasdecreased each year since, going from $12,800 in 2021 to $9,000 in 2024, the ministry said.

"Since the COVID-19 pandemic and with inflationary pressures, Canadian Heritage continues to see a significant increase in demand in requests for funding across programs which exceed available resources," Caroline Czajkowski said.

The ministry received applications for grants from organizations across the countrytotalling $39 million in 2019, but thatincreased to $60 million last year, which led to a decrease in the dollars granted to eligible festivals, the statement said.

Artists doing odd jobs to offset cost

Spada says many artists who perform at thefestival have volunteered to help out with technical, marketing, hosting and administrative jobs to offset somecosts.

Sharifa Headley, a performer and a sound engineer, has volunteered as a host at the festival for the past five years. She will be performing as a musician for the first time this year.

"It's a great opportunity because there are so few opportunities for residents in Brampton, especially in the jazz medium," she said.

She says she worries about what losing the festivalwould mean for artists like herself.

"That means other musicians aren't going to get a chance to showcase what they can do and just introduce themselves to a new audience of musicians who may not have heard them before," Headley said.

Paul Llew-Williams, a performer and board member, says festivals scaling back shows in the music industry is "unhealthy" because such events are some of the best opportunities for some artists to showcase their talent annually.

"There's not a lot of places, especially since COVID, to play. Things have changed. The landscape has totally changed for musicians," Llew-Williams said.

He has been a music teacher in Brampton for 30 years and says since the pandemic, part of his teaching has been not just to teach music but "how to survive."

Artists like Frank Adriano, who does the marketing for World of Jazz and is also a teacher, has been with the festival since 2017, says he is hoping to see it reach its 10th anniversary in 2027.

"It's exhausting to maintain that vision for what this festival can be. But I'm a glass half full guy," he said.

The World of Jazz festival runs from Sept. 6 to 8 in downtown Brampton.