Busker Festival’s survival is ‘against the odds:’ organizer
Posted Aug 12, 2010 05:24:03 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Busker Festival has been a mainstay of the Halifax tourist season for 24 years – but it might not around for a 25th.
As the festival wraps up this weekend, the organizer is pleading with the provincial government to loosen the purse strings.
Without new funding, festival producer Kim Hendrickson says next year’s festival probably won’t happen.
She says for three years running, the provincial government has rejected their funding request with no explanation.
Hendrickson tells CBC she and her volunteers are frustrated that the event isn’t receiving appreciation or acknowledgement from the province that promotes it as a “signature event.”
Hendrickson estimates that since the festival began, it has brought about $20 million in spinoffs to the province
The federal government announced $22,000 in funding for Busker Fest this week, however Hendrickson says in a release that it’s not enough to sustain a festival of this size.
The organziers of the Nova Scotia International Airshow are facing a simliar plight, saying a lack of provincial funding is one reason they’re moving to PEI next year.
