
Sarah McLachlan/via Roots and Blues Official website
The Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm has been able to secure an A-list headliner for this summer’s event, thanks — in-part — to cost-sharing.
Grammy-award winning Canadian artist Sarah McLachlan will be the closing act for this year’s event on August 20th.
Roots and Blues Artistic Director Kevin Tobin says part of the reason they’re able to afford an act like McLachlan is through working with other festivals to create multiple bookings.
“It’s really about trying to work and develop partnerships in order to have more dates for those artists,” said Tobin. “The more dates we can get for an artist, the costs go down for them.”
Tobin notes that both Sarah McLachlan and fellow Canadian act Blue Rodeo — which is also set to perform at Roots and Blues this summer — are making a number of stops before arriving in Salmon Arm in August.
He says organizers of those events work with him to create multiple bookings in a bid to keep down costs for everyone involved.
“I think there’s going to be more collaborative partnerships that are going to have to happen, not only for the events, but for artists themselves,” notes Tobin. “We’re seeing, obviously, the cost of travel is going up, accommodations goes up, hospitality goes up.”
Music industry insiders have been suggesting that with album sales a non-factor in today’s modern age, and revenues from music-streaming services and radio play not able to support rising costs, musicians and their labels have been subsequently forced to demand much higher rates for live performances.
The cost of booking artists — said to be over a million dollars for an A-list act — has been cited as the main reason this year’s Rockin’ River Festival in Merritt had to be scrubbed.
Its founder suggests that event is unlikely to return — at least in its previous form.
Despite increased costs due to inflation and other factors, organizers of the Boots and Roots Festival say ticket prices are going to be relatively the same this year as they were in 2022.
The 3-day Roots and Blues Festival in Salmon Arm kicks off on August 17th.