Sudbury's venerable Northern Lights Festival
Boreal came into the 2004-2005 year with a deficit that had to
be handled carefully. With the 2005 three-day event now just
behind us, the board of directors is pleased to announce this
year's festival was a success.
Ticket sales increased 30 percent over the
2004 event and even exceeded the 2005 budget by nearly 10
percent. Revenues from vendors, crafts, food and alcohol sales
met or exceeded the 2005 budget slightly in each
category.
Organizers give credit to good weather and
good programming to bring large crowds out to Bell Park for the
weekend of July 8, 9 and 10.
We didn't know at first how good the festival
sales would be, but our ticket sellers such as Black Cat Too,
Records on Wheels, A & J Home Hardware,
Walden Home Hardware and LOEB stores really
sold a lot of passes in the last days leading up to the
festival.
I can say that, on behalf of the board of
directors, the staff and the volunteers of the festival, we
thank the City of Sudbury and Northern Ontario for proving that
this is still a viable event.
We have a great technical crew with the local
stage management from Good Sound Advice and main stage
production from the Quebec company, Projecson. We have the
seeds of a well-oiled volunteer staff who work the festival
each year and a staff we hope to nurture and grow throughout
the coming year to make the 2006 festival bigger and
better.
The volunteers showed comeraderie thoughout
the excessive heat on Sunday by turning to some practical jokes
to lighten the mood.
The Northern Lights Festival Boreal also
thanks its many corporate and media sponsors and acknowledges
the financial support of the Ontario Arts Council, Canadian
Heritage, and the City of Greater Sudbury. A complete list of
sponsors can be found on the festival website.
While this year's successful festival won't
erase the deficit, it will go a good distance into it and pave
the way for the organization to be stronger and more active
throughout the 2005-2006 fiscal year.
The festival still has work to do with its
adviser, Mitch Podolak of Winnipeg, who will help build the
festival into a professional organization that functions year
round.
The festival will continue to seek more
funding and to bring more sponsors on board to deepen the
festival's community roots.
We want the Northern Lights Festival Boreal
to be a world class roots music and multicultural arts event
that will draw visitors from around the world.
The Northern Lights Festival Boreal also
looks forward to working closely with the City of Sudbury in
the next few years to ensure that Bell Park can sustain
festival growth.
Paul Loewenberg
Artistic director