The Success of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival
Wednesday August 04, 2010
Terry Wickham
I have been asked to write about “why the Edmonton Folk Festival is so successful”.
Success can be measured in many ways. In the past 15 years our festival has sold 99% of all available tickets. Our financial situation has stabilized, we have gone from an accumulated deficit of $60,000 to $1 million in the bank, $1 million in our Endowment Fund, and owning our office, also worth 1 million.
But I prefer to measure our success in terms of spirit and commitment. Our volunteer base of 2200 [with a waiting list of 400 ] is second to none in the world of folk festivals and our audience is loyal and passionate.
There are many ways to measure a folk festival. What are the sound systems like? How about the quality of the food, the hospitality, activities for kids, weather, environmental policies, and yes, how clean are the porta potties?
Edmonton ranks at or near the top in every category. We pay great attention to detail and we have an organizational philosophy that encourages constant improvement. I think it shows.
Our structure is democratic. Any volunteer, and only volunteers, can become a member. The membership elects The Board of nine members. The Board hires the Producer. The Board is in charge of policy and the Producer is responsible for the operations of the festival.
There have been no terminations or layoffs of staff for over 20 years. There are 5 key staff, with a minimum of 15 festivals worth of experience each. There are two key areas for any festival, and if you get either wrong, your festival will fail. They are the “product” and the “venue”. In our case the “product” is folk music, but more on that later.
The venue determines size, ambiance, access and potential for growth. Think of sitting on the hill at Gallagher Park. There is no doubt you are in Edmonton, as you survey the downtown skyline and the North Saskatchewan River Valley. You are also on a hill, lending itself to excellent acoustics and great sightlines. You can see over your neighbour’s head. This is called “raked seating” and the size of the hill and that 7 of the 8 stages are on hills are what sets Edmonton apart from other folk festivals. With a large audience capacity we have the ability to bring in major artists like van Morrison, Joni Mitchell or Norah Jones. Our first festival was held in Gold Bar Park, right beside the sewage treatment plant. How successful would we be if that was still our venue?
Bigger is not necessarily better. Other folk festivals have stunning sights. Newport overlooks a beautiful harbour, Calgary is set on the banks of the Bow river in a beautiful park, Winnipeg is in a Provincial park on the prairies, lending itself to a camping experience, and Vancouver overlooks, well Vancouver. Different sites give a unique feel to each experience.
“Product” is where Edmonton excels. Edmonton spends more on talent than any other folk festival, lets more people in for free than any other folk festival and is less expensive to attend than most major folk festivals. I won’t bore you with the details of how we have achieved that hat trick, except to say that is the result of a lot of planning and hard work.
Great care goes into the booking of each artist and how they will fit into the overall plan for this year’s festival. And then there is our attention to detail. All the technical needs of the bands have to be met. Then there is the hotel, hospitality, immigration, schedules, transport, sessions and concerts. We have to look at security, merchandise sales, audience entry, ticket sales, t shirt sales, concessions, and everything has to be checked and double checked by staff. If we can get the details right before we distribute the information to our 2200 volunteers, then the weekend will run smoothly.
Of course our success can be measured in very simple terms. It is cheaper to go to the folk festival this year for 5 days [Van Morrison, Levon Helm, Ben Harper, John Prine, Sarah Harmer and 60 other artists] than to get the top price seat at the Jubilee to see Neil Young. And you can bring your kids for free to the folk festival.
-- Terry Wickham [Producer 1989-Present]
Column ID#: 136
**Opinions expressed by guest columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Connect2Edmonton members, partners or sponsors.**
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