Festival City
Amen Jafri, Canada Arts Connect Magazine
If you flipped through the average Ottawa tourism brochure, you would be hard-pressed to find anything mentioning the burlesque performances and poetry slams that regularly sell-out in the city. You might learn, however, that in 2010 Ottawa was named the IFEA World Festival & Event City. Ottawa takes pride in its year-round festivals. Approximately 50 exist to-date, with new ones springing up every few years.
Why so many? According to Barbara Stacey, Executive Director at Ottawa Festivals, it’s because Ottawa’s unique environment – its diverse culture, its many partners (federal/provincial/municipal, NGOs, corporate, etc.) – simply opens up the opportunity. Loretto Beninger, an Ottawa researcher and academic who has extensively studied the city’s arts policy, offers an alternative perspective. She says the city uses an antiquated 1950s model to support local arts, narrowly defining what “culture” means: it’s either “people pirouetting in tutus or people throwing paint on a canvas.” Under this model, festivals are prized because “[they’re] temporary, [they’re] intense and [they’re] for a limited time period…a bit like the circus.”
Read more on the Canada Arts Connect Magazine website: Festival City
Launch of the Festival Season 2008
Ottawa Festivals celebrates each year with a special event to kick-off the festival season. The “Launch of the Festival Season” is the opportunity to celebrate Ottawa’s multi-million dollar festival industry and the decade-long involvement of Ottawa Festivals in showcasing and promoting art, culture, entertainment, and sport in Canada’s National Capital Region. Ottawa Festivals has been working to make local events world-class and promote Ottawa as an exciting tourist destination while also making a significant impact on the local economy and greatly enhancing the region’s image.This high profile media event brings awareness of the festival season fast approaching and new and exciting activities occurring throughout the industry.
New safety net gives festivals financial options to avoid 11th hour bailouts from city council
Ottawa Business Journal – Ontario, Canada
When Ottawa’s festival season officially launches later this month, organizers will be backed by a self-administered financial safety net that some say introduces a new level of sustainability into the sector. This will be the first full year Ottawa’s fairs, special events and festivals can borrow money from a fund, formed jointly by the city and the industry, to help sustain them through cash flow difficulties and emergency situations. “It really shows confidence in our industry, for us to be able to manage as any other business would even though we do have differing needs than your average business operation,” says Barbara Stacey, the executive director of Ottawa Festivals, which represents 41 fairs, festivals and special events.
Read Story at www.ottawabusinessjournal.com
Ottawa Tourism hands awards to Sens, FIFA organizers, at gala
Ottawa Business Journal – Ontario, Canada
… as well as the small company of the year, awarded to Ottawa Festivals. The not-for-profit, membership-based organization collectively markets Ottawa’s 41 festivals and began administering a sustainability and emergency fund to assist its members with their cash flow needs last year. “It is a way for us to allow our members to function as any other business would, so they have some safety nets in place if anything were to come up and they need some short-term financial assistance,” says Ottawa Festivals executive director Barbara Stacey …
