Sylvan Lake ‘staple’ Jazz at the Lake cancelled after 20 years

“There are several additional factors, including steeply rising operational costs, insurance, and increasing administrative requirements in dealing with Town permits and licenses, plus various other provincial agencies’ needs for ever more complicated paperwork to protect everyone’s liability,” says Eric Allison, JATL board president and founder.

“The JATL organization is a nonprofit volunteer organization, and all our board members work full-time jobs. We’re made up of musicians and music lovers. None of us are lawyers or professional grant writers, which seem increasingly needed on even a small festival board like ours. The workload has become time, labour and cost-prohibitive.”

Allison adds the Town waited until April instead of January to make a decision on grants this year, making it near-impossible to conduct bookings.

According to the Town, JATL applied for this year’s Recreation, Culture and Tourism (RCT) Grant, which hadn’t been available since 2020.

However, JATL, nor the other six organizations’ applications, were accepted.

Monique Pummings, the Town’s Director of RCT & Economic Development, explains organizations apply for grants in the fall, but are aware those grants for the upcoming year are still pending council approval during budget talks. Those talks typically occur in January, but this year were moved to March as the Town was awaiting more budget certainty — a practice other municipalities have also done.

Sylvan Lake town council approved its operating budget in late March, but without the grants in a bid to keep property taxes down and continue coping with the economic realities of exiting the pandemic.

Pummings shares JATL received RCT Grant money in 2013-2014 and 2016-2019, for a total of $75,000 over six years. JATL was on hiatus in 2015, and there was no RCT Grant in 2021 or 2022 due to COVID-19. It received $15,000 in 2020, but returned it as the event was unviable.

In 2022, the Town provided extra support to get the festival restarted, including rental of a mobile stage, and staffing for set up and tear down, services worth $14,600. Also provided for free: ticket sales at the NexSource Centre, including banking fees, plus many hours of Parks staff time, reserving the community centre as a backup location in case of bad weather, and staff to review JATL provincial grant applications.

“The current fiscal climate is difficult. We’re all faced with tough decisions. Due to significant budget pressures, we removed the Recreation, Culture and Tourism Grant from the 2023 budget. The Town of Sylvan Lake must balance community well-being with the burden on our taxpayers,” says Pummings.

“Jazz at the Lake was a staple in our community. We are sorry to see the festival being cancelled, and are saddened by the loss of this cultural event in our community. Should the financial climate improve, the Town may consider offering the grant in the future.”

Asked if this is it — permanently — for Jazz at the Lake, Allison says, “never say never.”

“The board and founders have identified what we feel is a lack of intentional, long-term funding for the arts (including JATL) in Sylvan Lake. Lacombe, a similarly sized community, has a performing arts centre which is utilized for all things arts and culture,” Allison opines.

“Until there’s a dedicated arts space in town, it’s unlikely we’d attempt to return. Many of our attendees have voiced their wish for an alternative to attending performances at schools and churches. Further, most festivals depend on their beer and wine sales at events to boost their profit, and that is not possible at either of these types of venues.”

Allison shares the festival’s budget has fluctuated throughout the years, increasing 22 per cent from 2018 to 2019, and then up 49.8 per cent in 2022. Festival revenues increased almost identically during those years, he also notes.

“There’s no music festival we know of that’s able to be mounted without some percentage of its budget supported by its municipal government,” Allison concludes.

“We postponed the decision for as long as we could, striving to find a solution, but we are at the point of no return now, where even if funding appeared, we would not have time to pull the event together.”

Adds Pummings: “Only one grant per year will be allocated to the same organization. Applicants are reminded that all grants are awarded on a year-by-year basis and are not to be seen as an ongoing source of funding.”

Other organizations to be denied RCT funding this year included Sylvan Lake (SL) Curling Club ($800), SL Lacrosse Association ($5,000), SL Quilters Guild ($2,400), Incline Industries Youth Foundation ($20,000), SL Community Partners Association ($1,200 and $1,400), and Sylvan Lake Theatre ($9,000). Jazz at the Lake was requesting $20,000.

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Sylvan Lake ‘staple’ Jazz at the Lake cancelled after 20 years

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