After running their event together for almost a decade, the team behind the friendly festival La Grosse Lanterne, held in the forest near Béthanie in Montérégie, decided to throw in the towel. The seventh and last event will therefore have taken place in August 2022.
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“We managed to create this festival without really having public support,” laments co-founder Mathieu Pontbriand, who explains that the decision is the result of long deliberations.
The festival hasn’t received any subsidies since its debut in 2014, except during the two pandemic years, “which is still ironic,” he says. “We had support grants from SODEC during the pandemic, but after that we are no longer eligible. So let’s try to understand. »
Mathieu Pontbriand put his heart and time into the adventure, but also lost a lot of money. “We never paid ourselves a salary, but we always honored our obligations to the artists, to the technicians. Out of breath, the man, who had also worked in the events sector for a long time, decided that enough was enough. “But the debate should also be about how the envelopes are distributed between the big machines and the small festivals. »
SODEC explains that La Grosse Lanterne was not a “customer” before the pandemic. “Only the biggest come into question, such as the Festif, the FME, the Francos or the Festival d’été de Québec,” explains communications director Johanne Marcotte. But when the pandemic hit, several events knocked on our door. We couldn’t include them in the festival program, but in that of Cultural Relaunch so that the music channel lives on. »
With the return to normal, La Grosse Lanterne will be ruled out again, Ms Marcotte said.
The small regional festivals are actually funded by the Ministry of Tourism.
Johanne Marcotte, Communications Director of SODEC
The organization of La Grosse Lanterne never submitted an application on this site, explains Mathieu Pontbriand. “We were unable to submit an application because the data on the origin of our audience was deemed insufficient. But doing a traffic study was really beyond our capabilities. This is another flaw in the subsidy mechanism that only the big ones can afford. »
Johanne Marcotte specifies that the SODEC support program for festivals will change form and name within a month: it will instead be called “cultural event” and will be “much more malleable”. “In this way, multidisciplinary events can benefit from it,” she says. The Big Lantern could have met the criteria. But at the same time, a $50,000 grant isn’t what keeps a festival alive. It needs big sponsors who bring money. »
duplication of requests
One of the problems with La Grosse Lanterne, Mathieu Pontbriand believes, was that it didn’t fit into any category.
We went far in our activities, with an eco-friendly festival in harmony with nature, a lighting in the forest. But as soon as you want to get out of shape, it gets very complicated.
Mathieu Pontbriand, co-founder of La Grosse Lanterne
Because everything is very heavily divided between funding bodies at different levels of government, filling out applications takes up at least “50% of the time” of festival organizers, says Patrick Kearney, president of the Santa Teresa Festival and REFRAIN, a group founded there. two years old, representing almost a hundred festivals in the province. “It’s not glamorous, well, and it adds to the heaviness,” he says. Especially at small festivals with a reduced team, there is also the pandemic fatigue, the increase in costs and the lack of staff.
But the festivals are not necessarily emerging weakened from this year’s resumption of activity, analyzes Patrick Kearney. “A few are questioned, I would say four or five out of a hundred. But for some, it was difficult even before the pandemic. It went well for the vast majority, there were people, people were hungry after two years. Most of the results are positive, but we have felt the cost increase and expect next year. »
Mathieu Pontbriand, who has “incredible” memories of his festival, wants to start a cry from the heart and a debate. “I’m not at war with anyone. But we’ve promoted the French language and Quebec culture, we’ve brought emerging music to the regions, we’ve respected the values of diversity and equity, we’ve followed all of that… It’s sad indeed. It’s really sad. »