The Grande Prairie International Street Performers Festival appeared in Council Chambers on Monday night.
According to festival co-chair Wayne Ayling, the festival is experiencing its first funding deficit in the festival’s 24 years of operation. Ayling cites the COVID-19 pandemic as a major contributor to the funding shortages being experienced by numerous not-for-profits around Grande Prairie.
“Many not-for-profits in our community have been negatively impacted by the lingering effects of COVID, and the Grande Prairie International Street Performers Festival is one of those,” he says. “We’ve never carried a deficit at all, and in fact, we’ve always been able to put a little bit of money aside for a rainy day up until last year.”
Ayling says in years past, the festival has been able to avoid funding issues by using it’s “rainy day fund;” however, due to rising costs between 2019 and 2023, along with sponsorship changes, the festival has no choice but to turn to the municipal government to cover expenses for the 2024 show.
“We paid everybody, and we had a balanced budget because of that; however, this year we don’t have a rainy day fund,” Ayling says. “We’re left looking for new sponsorship support and we’re in the process of redesigning our sponsorship ask so next year we won’t have to come before council.”
As a result, Ayling appeared before the city council as a delegation asking for $17,000 to cover costs for the upcoming festival, which council opted to provide in full from their Strategic Initiatives Fund, balancing the festival’s budget.
The festival is scheduled for numerous dates across the Grande Prairie region this summer, with stops in Wembley, Sexsmith, and Beaverlodge, and the three-day festival in the City Centre is scheduled for July 19th, 20th, and 21st.
