New Westminster city council is kicking in some more cash for this year’s Multicultural Festival but wants organizers to consider how to make the annual celebration more sustainable in future years.
As part of its annual festival grants program, the city awarded the New Westminster Philippine Festival Society $5,000 to organize this year’s festival, which was less than the $14,000 requested for 2019 and the $10,000 approved for 2018. Organizers appealed to city council for more money for this year’s festival, which takes place at Westminster Pier Park on Canada Day and features music, food and cultural performances.
Salve Dayao, the society’s president, recently told council that the event has been successful but costs are rising. She said a $5,000 grant isn’t enough to put on this year’s event, noting the stage alone costs $8,450.
“Our total expenses incurred was $16,200,” she said of last year’s festival. “Every year expenses go up, and it is beyond our control.”
Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said organizers of other events, including Uptown Live, who faced a grant reduction from the previous year, were given an opportunity to make a presentation to the grants committee and explain why they needed more funding. He noted that organizers of the Multicultural Festival were not given the same opportunity to make a case for more funding from the city.
“I think this is a really important festival. I think we can work with the festival and address some of the issues that have been raised previously,” he said. “To let it die right now because of a bit of an oversight on our part, I think would not send a really good message.”
Coun. Mary Trentadue said she’d prefer to have the city work with the society to see what type of festival it could with the $5,000 approved by council in December. She also thinks there needs to be a discussion about how to make the festival more sustainable in the long run so organizers don’t have to rely so heavily on city funding to put on the event.
“I know that this organization does good work, and they would like to continue to do this,” she said. “It’s challenging in my mind that there were other grants that were asked for that were also not provided. It’s a difficult thing to do. But to give funding after the fact when other organizations have also been turned down, I think is really challenging. “
In a four to three vote, council approved a motion to approve an additional $5,000 to the New Westminster Philippine Festival Society for this year’s Multicultural Day festival. Mayor Jonathan Cote and councillors Puchmayr, Jaimie McEvoy and Chinu Das supported the motion, but councillors Patrick Johnstone, Nadine Nakagawa and Trentadue opposed the additional $5,000.
“I will support this request, given that it is the same funding that was received last year to put this event on, but moving forward, I would like to have a conversation about this event,” Cote said. “Even the delegate made mention that putting this event on on Canada Day, when entertainment is at a premium, makes it very difficult and more costly to put on the event. I think we need to have a conversation about how we make this event more sustainable.”
According to Dayao, the price of performers increases every year. On Canada Day, she said performers are “going back and forth” to perform at all of the festivals in the Lower Mainland.
“Canada’s birthday is special,” she said. “All the multicultural communities get to present their culture to their adopted country.”
Each year, the city disperses cash through arts and culture, festivals, partnerships, amateur sports, child care, environment, heritage and community grant programs. The city has approved more than $900,000 for grant programs in 2019.
