The Collingwood Music Festival brings an eclectic mix of music to picturesque Nottawasaga Bay in northern Ontario. The 2024 edition ran from July 5 to 12 as a success with good audience numbers – but that result was never guaranteed.
Running a music festival is a multi-faceted operation that is never easy, and today operates in an unprecedented post-pandemic environment of uncertainty.
We spoke to Artistic Director Daniel Vnukowski about the journey from last year’s planning to this year’s performances.
Daniel Vnukowski: The Interview
A firm belief in the enduring power and appeal of Western classical music and storytelling is at the heart of the festival.
“The complexity, the nature of classical music itself — its innate complexity — is what keeps it alive,” Daniel believes. “Every time the world goes crazy, we’re drawn to something that gives us something more spiritual, with more depth.”
But, while the music itself endures, many festivals do not. That’s a reality any year, but in a difficult climate where many organizations are still carrying debts leftover from the pandemic, without new sources of funding, or enough audience numbers, to compensate in the present. It’s led many cultural organizations to cut down their offerings, if not drop out altogether.
“We were very worried at different points,” he says. That was the situation last fall when planning for this summer began in earnest. Realistically speaking, Collingwood is a newer festival only in its third year of regular programming. “We were all worried.”
There was good reason for concern. Bigger and older festivals like Hot Docs have been cutting back and going through turbulent times. After what ended up as a grey, dreary winter, though, the tide began to change.
“Around the spring transition,” he recalls. “We had a really dark winter […] when those first spring rays of sun started to come up, I said to my team, we’re counting on a festival miracle.”
An Uncertain Climate
“There was some hesitation in the air,” Daniel says. That translated into reluctant sponsors, and a much reduced pool of government funding. As he explains, there was lots of support available during and immediately after the pandemic, last year, that situation changed pretty drastically. “That purse has really been tightened.”
Corporate sponsors, even those who’d been involved in previous years, wanted to wait and see. “When they say to wait, it’s often the death knell,” he notes. “We thought of really downgrading.”
Some of the measures considered included reducing the youth events, and moving the entire festival indoors to avoid the expense involved in building a large outdoor stage.
But, this time at least, time was on their side.
“And then, one thing after another, one grant came in […] one family decided to double their contribution…” During the very last week prior to the launch of the Festival, ticket sales picked up, and sponsors old and new suddenly called in to participate.
“It all came together at once.”
Creativity in sourcing and managing expenses was another building block to this year’s success.
The Audience
In contrast to the financial and organizational side of things, audience reactions were more than gratifying. Despite slow initial ticket sales, momentum built as the Festival approached. Vnukowski says he could see how much audiences wanted to take part.
“Absolutely, [there’s] a deep need in the community to go out and rejoice with music,” he says, calling the general reaction “extreme enthusiasm”. Hesitation led to release. “Lots of smiles on their faces. I almost felt like a huge exhale of relief.”
The community rallied around the festival, which went a long way towards bringing it to life. “We’ve pretty much doubled our volunteers,” he says.
Still, there were some anxious moments. “I’ve never seen this before, where the ticket sales doubled in the week before.”
Perhaps there was a sense that, finally, it might be safe to gather in groups.
The Festival
New to the Festival this year was a youth initiative, looking for young musicians to participate. Auditions were held by video, in partnership with a local music teacher’s association.
“I was absolutely blown away,” he says. It wasn’t only a question of talent, but of the sheer diversity of the applications, and the wide range of instruments. “For the first time, a church organ had a debut,” he reports, noting the musician in question was a young teenager.
Six were chosen to perform in concert at the Festival, and the repertoire covered everything from the Great American songbook to a chamber ensemble. There was a full house. “We had a huge turn out of support,” he says. “There’s a huge demand for the next generation of talent.” Audiences cheered for the young musicians. “That’s something we’ll be expanding on greatly in future years.”
Looking for that mix of well known names and emerging artists is part of the curation process. “It’s nice to have the world class talent,” he says, “the guaranteed ticket sales.”
Along with talent, he was looking for certain qualities. “As a curator, I always look for that spark in the artist,” he explains. If the concept involves storytelling, so much the better to create a connection with the audience. It goes beyond virtuosity. “A lot of us musicians, we started as prodigies,” he says. Speed and feats of technical prowess are the priority. “That’s all exciting at some point, but there’s more to the story.”
This year’s Festival included the world premiere of Postcards Lost, a musical journey told through postcards shared by a couple who survived the horrors of the Second World War. The postcards are displayed along with a live performance of Jewish music and children’s poetry.
Legendary singer and actor Jackie Richardson and composer/pianist Joe Sealy performed a work titled Africville, about Canada’s oldest Black community in Nova Scotia. In Songs in the Key of Cree, Thomson Highway shared stories about his childhood in a cabaret format with vocalist Patricia Cano.
“People love to hear the stories,” Daniel says. “That really makes for a more satisfying experience.
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