Dozens of festivals take place in Edmonton every year, and organizers went to a city committee Monday to speak out against increasing civic expenses that come with hosting those events.
In a year, there are roughly 230 event days in Edmonton, carried out as part of 24 festivals – but organizers say the events are losing a lot of money in expenses that go to the city.
The expenses include permits, traffic control and police services.
Organizers of the All is Bright Festival, which took place November 19 on 124 Street said the bill for their event increased from $650 in 2015, to nearly $10,000 in 2016. Servus Heritage Festival organizers said the civic expenses for 2016 were about $85,000.
On Monday, councillors moved forward with a $200,000 rebate program to cover 50 percent of civic service costs incurred in 2016 by certain festivals and groups.
“If this moves ahead, this proposal from the city moves ahead we might break even this year,” Jim Gibbon with the Heritage Festival said. “Last year we lost, as you saw inside, we lost a lot of money, but it’s really great to see the city coming forward and saying these festivals are important. We should help these guys because boy we could really use the help.”
The rebate was passed by the committee, and will go before City Council for approval.
Officials will also look into providing the same rebate in 2017 and 2018 as they work on an alternative solution.
