Grande Prairie City Council made the decision to provide the Bear Creek Folk Festival a cash sponsorship of $50,000 during its recent Monday night meeting.
Festival Producer Sarah Card came into the meeting seeking $80K in sponsorship- citing increased costs and fewer grant opportunities from agencies like the Province of Alberta.
Despite her original ask, Council’s current maximum for corporate sponsorships stands at $50K, which Card says the festival is “incredibly grateful” for, especially given the city’s desire to work with the festival in finding any additional cost savings to make up for the missing $30K the city historically provided before the cap.
“We came in knowing the sponsorship cap was 50 and that’s what we received, so we’re incredibly grateful for that,” she says. “We’re also grateful for the city’s continued support and discussion in ways to find that other 30- whether that’s in reduction of costs, we’re very excited about their investment in the hill, which is not only going to help us- it’s going to help other community groups too.”
Council’s investment in electricity infrastructure for Borstad Hill bears slightly higher-than-anticipated costs, potentially delaying the project beyond the festival. Still, Card says she looks forward to revisiting the idea, even if it isn’t feasible for this year’s event.
“If that ends up being not possible for this year, they mentioned they can revisit that,” she says.
The event producer maintains that affordability remains top of mind when it comes to cost-recovery. Card says the festival is first and foremost a “family event,” so keeping ticket prices low is a significant priority for organizers.
“We assess every single year, but at the end of the day- it’s so incredibly important to us to keep our festival tickets affordable, to families and people who don’t necessarily have a giant amount of money, this is an event for the community, and for families, so we want to keep it affordable,” she says.
The 2025 Bear Creek Folk Festival is scheduled from August 15th to the 17th.
