Determined to support the city's cultural vitality and offer its major festivals and events greater predictability, the City of Montreal is announcing a $1 million increase to the Major Festivals and Events Fund.
This additional recurring amount will bring the Fund to $6.5 million by 2025. It comes from the envelope dedicated to the Downtown Strategy, which, for the first time, will support Montreal's festival and event scene. Details of its distribution will be announced at a later date. Thanks to this increase, the city will raise its total financial assistance to festivals from $8 million to $9 million per year, in addition to continuing to offer them ongoing technical support.
“Our dynamic cultural scene brings us together and makes us shine all over the world. Festivals and major events attract millions of people to Montreal every year, helping to make our downtown and neighbourhoods vibrant. Festivals and major events are engines that drive the city's economic development. However, festivals face economic challenges, and we are proud to support them by increasing our financial support. Our administration will continue to support Montreal's cultural sector, and we invite all economic players and other financial backers to join us in ensuring the sustainability and vitality of our festivals,” declared Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.
Enhancement of alternative venues
In addition to enhancing the Major Festivals and Events Fund, the City of Montreal recently increased the budget for its soundproofing program by $2.5 million, so that it can be offered to more venues. From now on, venues with fewer than 3,000 seats and cultural venues that are not recognized as performance halls, but are an integral part of Montreal's cultural and artistic ecosystem, can benefit from the soundproofing program.
“Alternative venues are important to Montrealers. They are also very important for the next generation and emerging culture. We can't afford to see them close. That's why we're taking action. The soundproofing program we created in 2022 is now more generous and better adapted to the needs of concert halls and other cultural venues. Today, it offers substantial amounts to almost all of Montreal's private performance venues. We're proud to support an ecosystem that contributes directly to the vitality of our cultural metropolis,” says Ericka Alneus, Executive Committee member responsible for culture, heritage, gastronomy and nightlife.
