Venues & Festivals
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1 Venues & Festivals What do you consider to be Toronto’s greatest challenges as a music destination? The data set has been reviewed to ensure that the content does not: Contravene the City's policies or applicable laws related to anti-discrimination, human rights or privacy; Include information that identifies an individual other than one acting in an official capacity, nor any comments that are personal attacks on someone's character, personal or business affairs, etc.; Address an issue before the courts or outside of the City's jurisdiction, or comments on another organization or private company; Contain unsubstantiated rumours or potentially libellous statements; Contain obscenities, derogatory, insulting, offensive, violent or hateful language; Include any email addresses, attachments, or web links. In cases where such comments are found, only the language that contradicts the policy is removed by staff — the remainder of the comments remains in the data set." Keyword Searches: venue*, infrastruct*, locat*, festival*, event* we need more venues for emerging and diverse artists Lack of mid-size venues While the variety of live music/festivals is there, there is no major festival that people will necessarily go out of their way to travel to Toronto to attend. Cost of living, lack of mid-sized venues I would like to see more support for resources that promote live music such as *. I would also like to see fewer obstacles for live music venues in neighbourhoods outside of the downtown core. Lack of infrastructure Toronto Tourism is not capitalizing off of our amazing artists and festivals and they really should. There is a lack of variety of venues and festivals, lack of unity between promoters. It's a costly city to live in as an artist. There is not enough support for local initiatives. International promotion of Toronto based Musick events. The wrather in the winter remains unattractive to many foreigners from more temperate climates. An inadequate transit system to allow access to various areas of the city for events, especially outside of the downtown core Extremely high costs of event production. a mediocre small to midsize standing GA rooms. perhaps capital cost upgrade subsidy to establisged and/or new venues to upgrade PA's, maintain existing PA's and help offset cost to hire established, experienced and professional house sound technicians. there's lots of these around Venues are too expensive it's cold, so outdoor festivals are difficult to have Not sure what the greatest challenges would be, but I would think having venues for the public to be exposed to our local talent and we need to do a better job to connect with those musicians who have developed successful music careers as they are the role models for our future talent While the diversity of music and festivals is a strength, they often are competing for the same resources. Bylaws, condo development and NIMBYisms that are threatening the health of Toronto's music venues old and new Lack of festivals celebrating local/national talent as opposed to international artists Rent costs closing music venue, having music venues be a welcomed part of a neighbourhood, There's a lot of regulation that makes it difficult for venue owners and events that prevent them from being lucrative, this often filters down to artists. I think many of our by-laws prevent us from hosting a full-scale SXSW-style music festival. Just one example there needs to be an all jazz live location By-laws, making it difficult to hold outdoor events in public spaces during festivals it's very difficult to see lots of bands as all the venues are so spread out all over the city. It would work well if festivals used venues all in walking distance The restrictions on how long an event can be held in Toronto venues. (ie. concerts ending before 12am at sustainable venues) Accessibility and lighter music discovery. Some festivals have a hefty price tag and venues are taking a beating and need more help getting back on their feet. There are very few venues that have around 800 capacity available. There are smaller ones, with fewer than 500, and then large venues 1200+. Hard for mid size bands to find a good space w/ good sound w/out going to a private or non venue space. when historic music venues are commercialized and ruined The lack of support for the use non-traditional venue spaces (warehouses, shops, parks, etc) The lack of awareness of the vitality of Toronto's musicians and very often the lack of marketing of the cool initiatives and events and special programs helping artists, and outcome of those programs and special events. 2 we need to revamp our bylaws to make them more friendly to music for example special permits that allow tour vehicles to not be ticketed durng load in or load out times. Our street poserting bylaws make it more difficult to adertverise shows. We havea wealth of talent and venues let's tell the world about them and include a musical component in our trade mission! bureaucracy with respect to permits, zoning, NIMBY-ism about allowing live performance and events the lack of midsize (200-300 person) venues lack of affordable living and working spaces mean that many of Toronto's musicians are leaving for cheaper locations like Hamilton. regulations surrounding licensing and permits for festivals and site specific events Lack of all-ages venues. Bylaws that make it difficult staging events during festivals such as NXNE and CMW The lack of conventional and social media exposing musical events limits the amount of exposure music events get. venues available to younger up and coming musicians in a variety of styles and genres, city should have public performance opportunities for up and coming acts Stiff noise bylaws and liquor laws (no drinking in parks, etc.). Makes it hard to offer "pop up" music venues. advertising and promoting -- there is a lot available but often there is limited announcement and events can get missed -- unless you are on a direct mailing list Issues at the border for international/US acts, no central music area/venues are widely dispersed, early bar closing times, too many small festivals, not one central one. need more recognizable acts at nxne/cmw to push them to the next level It's difficult to stand out sometimes; noise curfews/regulations make it difficult for venues Too many venues/promoters not paying equitable rates and too many musicians willing to play for free or at under-market rates Finding a rentable music venue for 200 people - is a real challenge in this city. it's the people who stays home and does nothing. There's already lots of people out in festivals and at certain live music venues. I think it's the challenge of people listening. I went to NYC and Montreal during their music festivals and at certain live music venues. People sit and listen. There's always many musicians out and about performing. I say not enough people appreciate and listen to the music. Cooperation between venue owners, promoters, bookers and musicians. S community driven approach would be ideal. Some music festivals should be not pay to play festivals. Artisits should benefit for their work. Artisits without agents should be included. rent is way too high for venues as it is, and the margins are always too tight to be able to guarantee any kind of compensation to musicians. I hear horror stories about red tape for festivals, venues, etc with the city The 'pay to play' atmosphere created by most bars/music venues the lack of a live-venue "strip" makes festivals like NXNE pale in comparison to SXSW. We can't close down streets and have people walk up and down a strip to enjoy the multitude of venues because everything is too spread out. often times, it's impossible to even know that a festival is taking place. Oversaturation of music festivals in souther Ontario Exposure for new and/or unknown artists. Few venues pay enough to make a regular gig worthwhile and it is impossible to "market" live performances on a small scale. Venues, audiences Regulations that limit the nature and scope of certain musical events our currency, we need to draw bigger festivals downtown we're losing venues to condos. It is challenging to find performance spaces that are wheelchair accessible. It is challenging for good music venues to be able to provide low-cost performance spaces to musicians, while keeping up their own rent payments (AKA - rent prices are a barrier for Toronto's music scene) and this is a key difference between Toronto and Montreal's arts and music scenes. Most existing venues need a lot of repair, accessible prices (especially for soft seaters) - and there is a HUGE capacity gap around 150 SRO and 1000+ SRO The fact that traffic and a broken transit system make it difficult to access venues. There needs to be more venues There is an ongoing problem with a lack of medium-sized venues. As well, music from a wide diversity of cultural communities tends to be separated from many of the largest venues and festivals, kept to Harbourfront and a few other special occasions. Toronto's greatest challenge is our failure to SUPPORT OUR OWN NON-FOLK/INDIE ARTISTS. We also really need more nice venues with good, updated equipment able to accommodate multimedia experiences and that aren't total dives. The Drake Underground is an example, but that is only one venue and as it's in a basement and not street-level it's a really challenging space to connect with.