The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) has a fractious relationship with some organizers of festivals in B.C.’s best-known ski destination, Business in Vancouver has learned.
For example, Jazz on the Mountain at Whistler Society (JOM) organizers are suing the municipality for $704,000 plus damages and punitive damages for what they claim is a series of breaches of a duty of care. Organizers of other festivals complain about either being cut off from municipal funding or having funding drastically reduced (see sidebar).
JOM organizer Arnold Schwis berg, who underwrote JOM, documents his deteriorating relationship with the RMOW in a 29-page notice of civil claim that he filed in the BC Supreme Court on February 28.
Schwisberg alleges that RMOW staff reneged on assurances that the municipality would contribute to the jazz festival’s success by covering the costs of such items as fencing, utilities and security.
Not only did the RMOW fail to help cover those costs, Schwisberg alleges, but it also established a competing set of free concerts that Schwisberg says hurt JOM ticket sales.
Schwisberg’s suit also alleges that RMOW:
•subsidized its free concerts by enjoying lower costs for lighting and fencing already set up and paid for by JOM;
•butted into a JOM sponsorship agreement with the Globe and Mail that resulted in the national newspaper producing a section that scarcely mentioned JOM and instead included advertising for RMOW’s free concerts; and
•overstepped its authority by placing advertising in different Vancouver newspapers that promoted the free Whistler concerts and implied that JOM events were free.
“Throughout the JOM event on Labour Day weekend, 2011, would-be concert attendees came to the Whistler Olympic Plaza ticketing gates wondering why tickets were required when the impression was that the concerts were for free,” JOM alleges in its notice of civil claim. “Most potential attendees declined to purchase a ticket and were upset at having been misled [by RMOW’s] inaccurate advertising.”
Another of RMOW’s alleged actions that hurt JOM ticket sales was locating screens that could be seen outside and above Whistler Olympic Plaza fencing.
JOM alleges that further dissuaded potential ticket buyers because people could see the concert without entering the venue.
JOM claims that attendance at its ticketed concerts during its September 2 through 4, 2011, run were less than 9% of the forecast 9,000 to 15,000 people.
Whistler mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden told Business in Vancouver that she had not read JOM’s notice of claim but that she would not comment regardless because the matter is before the court.
However, she stressed to BIV that her municipality values its festivals (see below).
Mayor defends new festival funding process
Whistler mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden told BIV that some of the ruffled feathers stem from her municipality’s new process for determining funding – including a committee responsible for spending festival-oriented cash to get the biggest bang for its buck.
WinterPRIDE organizers said they were disappointed at getting no funding for their February 3-10 gay ski week despite requesting between $30,000 and $100,000 to secure popular entertainers.
But Wilhelm-Morden said spending extra cash to boost visits at WinterPRIDE was not necessary.
“February is one of our strongest months,” she said. “This year, [WinterPRIDE] occurred at the same time as Chinese New Year, the Luge World Championships, a fabulous snow year and the first B.C. Family Day.”
December’s Whistler Film Festival (WFF) increased attendance 20% to 10,000 in 2012. But it has had its $125,000 funding in 2012 cut 28% to $90,000 in 2013.
“We’re disappointed that we had the largest year-over-year variance of all the festivals and are going to get $35,000 less funding this year,” WFF director Shauna Hardy Mishaw told BIV.
But Wilhelm-Morden said the $90,000 allotted to the WFF is more than it was five years ago.
The money the municipality spends will be split among 12 festivals in 2013, up from eight in 2012.
Last year, the province gave RMOW $6.3 million as part of its Resort Municipality Initiative. RMOW spends $2.8 million on festivals and the rest on gardens, trail maintenance and other initiatives.
