MONTREAL, QUEBEC (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — This year, Montreal’s FrancoFolies festival is facing a last-minute federal funding cut, which could hinder the June 10 to June 19 event, according to CBC News.
FrancoFolies, one of the biggest French music festivals in the world, is expected to feature artists such as Damien Robitaille, Dubmatique, Kevin Parent, Malajube, Pierre Lapointe and Robert Charlebois.
While last year, the festival received $1.5 million from the federal government’s Marquee Tourism Events program, organizers learned just Friday that the funding will not be renewed, according to CBC News.
Tony Clement, Industry Minister for the Marquee Tourism Events fund, said the federal government has chosen to give a chance to festivals in smaller urban centers and rural areas capping the program to two events per major city. Clement identified Montreal’s two chosen events as the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival.
Laurent Saulnier, the festival's vice-president of programming is not satisfied with Clement’s explanation, and told CBC News, “Montreal is known around the world as the city of festivals," Saulnier said. "If we want to still have this nickname, I think we need more than two events in this city to be helped by this [federal] program.”
Saulnier went on to tell CBC News, “If we had any indication before last Friday we would have worked with it,” and says now the festival will have to go door to door with less than a month from opening day. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
