The Calgary Sled Island summer festival is having challenges with cash flow and it may need changes in order to survive. Its sustainability has benefitted from COVID relief funding which has now dried up. It will need to look hard at costs within an environment where disposable income has been reduced because of inflation and consumer debt levels are high. Folks still need to deploy entertainment dollars but they need certainty that they are getting value for money. Should the event decide to continue to recruit acts from outside the city, costs will remain high. If the event refuses to turn down the volume, people will be annoyed and won’t come. Hard decisions are required during tough economic times. Unfortunately, management teams which heed the needs of vendors / artists over the interests of consumer group will fail. 

When attending a strong performance last summer at the United Church downtown, there was a hiccup in the setup and it was lucky they had a seasoned veteran sound man on board in order to facilitate the setup change given a band which showed up in numbers beyond which was expected.

The management team should also be acute to genres out of favour and communicate better with respect to the style and track record of artists anticipated to take the stage. 

Private sponsors may be will to show up and participate with cash but sponsorship must be honoured in such a way that shows benefit other than a company logo on a website.