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Advocacy

Campaign to Renew BC’s Fairs, Festivals & Events Fund

Join us in advocating for the renewal of the BC Fairs, Festivals, and Events (BCFFE) Fund.

Established by the Province of BC in 2021, the BCFFE Fund was a one-time fund that was a lifeline for event organizations struggling to overcome the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024, the fund was renewed to address rising costs, decreased revenue and sponsorships, and increased equipment expenses, and supported 1,172 organizations across 184 communities.

Throughout 2024, we engaged with arts organizations across the province to gather valuable feedback. Based on these conversations, we created a summer campaign for both arts presenters and patrons to engage their local MLA’s and the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Support to renew this vital fund. Our letter for presenters sent to campaign was sent 155 times by arts presenters, and 133 times by arts patrons and audience members.

We were thrilled to see that one of the BC NDP’s current campaign promises is to Build the heart of communities by investing in tourism, arts and culture activities, and provide stable year-over-year funding for fairs, festivals and events.

We want to hold the BC NDP to these promises, and have launched a follow-up campaign. Join us in advocating for the following:

  • Timeline for Implementation: a clear timeline for the renewal of funding for BC Fairs, Festivals and Events. Knowledge around when the funds will be available is critical for the sector to plan upcoming events with certainty, particularly when it comes to securing artists, vendors, and marketing commitments.
  • Funding Levels: restoration of BC Fairs, Festivals and Events funding to at least the 2023 level of $30 million per year is critical. We understand that budgetary considerations are always a factor, but maintaining this level of support is essential to ensure that our events can continue to grow and thrive in the face of economic challenges.
  • Long-Term Sustainability: a clear commitment to making the BCFFE a permanent, multi-year program. This would allow us to better plan for the future, reduce uncertainty, and make long-term investments, building more resilient infrastructures and stronger communities. Multi-year funding would ensure that our events are innovative, inclusive, and sustainable.

We’ve created letters that you can download, personalize, and send to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sport and to your local MLA. Please CC festivals@bclive.ca on your advocacy emails.

Letters are in editable Word (DOCX) format.

Advocacy Letter – Minister

Advocacy Letter – MLA

Find Your Local MLA

BC Election Arts and Culture Advocacy

BC Live is part of the BC Coalition of Arts, Culture, and Heritage, 30+ organizations representing thousands of arts, culture, and heritage organizations in every region and more than 188 communities in BC. The Coalition has developed a government relations and advocacy action plan for our sector with the following requests for provincial support:

1. Increase Annual BC Arts Council Budget to $55 Million

For a nearly 20-year period between the early 2000s and the late 2010s, BC’s provincial government invested less in culture than any other province in the country. Actions have been taken by the province in recent years and through the pandemic to remedy this chronic underinvestment, however, the compounding impact of COVID-19, high inflation, and a general affordability crisis threaten to erase any gains we’ve made in the past five years.

We call upon the Government of BC to fulfill its 2017 election promise to double the BC Arts Council’s budget and raise this amount to $55 million to account for inflation. Increasing the annual BC Arts Council budget to $55 million will provide a valuable long-term investment in BC’s arts, culture, and heritage community.

2. Maintain COVID-Era Investments In Arts, Culture, & Heritage

On the ground in communities, the sector continues to rely on pandemic-focused support to sustain its existence – special one-time BC Arts Council funding delivered in 2023 prevented catastrophic closures in our sector. We understand that pandemic-level investments are not intended as a sustainable, long-term plan, but these funds have been a lifeline for a sector that has been in crisis long before the pandemic.

We call upon the Government of BC to maintain the current financial, pandemic-recovery funding ($34.5 million annually) to be distributed by the BC Arts Council and its partner agencies, in the 2024/25 and 2025/26 fiscal years. In the immediate term, maintaining COVID-era investments helps to stabilize the sector and ensure the survival of our cultural organizations and events until longer-term plans can be put in place.

3. Work with the Sector to Develop a Provincial Arts, Culture, & Heritage Action Plan

No matter how hard individual artists or cultural organizations work, the system in BC that has been built over decades does not work – it inevitably leads to burnout and the slow impoverishment of our province’s cultural legacy.

We call upon the Government of BC to work with our sector to initiate an inclusive and resourced action plan development process that will create a new vision for the sector, along with sustained funding models supported by economic and infrastructure development planning. An action plan for our sector will leverage the impact, creativity, and innovation of BC’s arts, culture, and heritage sector to build a sustainable, healthy, and resilient future to support all British Columbians.

#FutureOfLIVE

BC Live was one of many active partners in the #FutureOfLIVE Campaign with CAPACOA, the Canadian Live Music Association, and the Canadian Independent Music Association, advocating for increased investment of funding from the federal government.

This robust campaign delivered results for the touring and presenting sector. The Federal Budget 2024 provides $31 million in supplementary funds over two years to the Department of Canadian Heritage for the Canada Arts Presentation Fund to help support organizations that present professional arts festivals or performing arts series.

This is nearly double the current supplementary funding provided to the program since 2019. The program will now receive $15.5 million annually, up from $8 million.

This funding will benefit nearly 1,600 organizations in every province and territory and contribute to sustaining 78,000 cultural jobs. It will immediately impact artists and their representatives whose Summer, Fall, and Winter tours were still awaiting funding confirmation.

“BCTC wishes to extend its gratitude to the federal government for recognizing the important role festivals and presenters play by significantly boosting the Canadian Arts Presentation Fund. The temporary nature of this funding means we need to continue our joint efforts to advocate for the performing arts.”

– Miriam Manley, Executive Director, BC Touring Council

While none of the supplementary funding has been permanently added to the program’s funding base, this funding offers immediate relief and a significant boost. The program is still set to return to its 2007 funding level in two years. The #FutureOfLIVE coalition and partner organizations will continue to advocate for long-term sustainable funding.