MONTREAL — Nick Farkas, with Montreal-based event promoter Evenko, says the company has had to cancel or postpone more than 100 shows since the Quebec government shut concert venues in December to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Farkas, along with other Quebec tourism and festival promoters, wants the government to provide a clear timetable for when venues can reopen at full capacity. Without that timetable, they say, concerts will be cancelled, festivals can't be planned and conferences will move to other cities.
"We were patient, we're understanding of the situation, we have been since the beginning," Farkas, a vice-president with Evenko, said in an interview Monday. "We're just looking for a date."
Entertainment and sports venues in Quebec were allowed to reopen on Monday at 50 per cent capacity, up to a maximum of 500 people. However, the province has not announced a plan to further ease restrictions for those businesses.
Farkas said he hopes that plan will be announced soon so he can stop cancelling concerts and make plans for large events like music festival Osheaga.
"With festivals, you can't just decide a month before we're going to go for it," he said, adding that many skilled workers have left the events industry due to its instability.
Osheaga went ahead last year with 15,000 spectators — around one-fifth of its usual attendance, divided into zones of 500 people. But Farkas said he worries that Quebec's strict restrictions on indoor and outdoor events will lead people to go to festivals in the United States that don't have capacity restrictions.
"We can't do business based on selling half the room, it's just not viable anymore," he said.
Martin Roy, executive director of a group that represents many of Quebec's largest festivals, said the provincial government's "striptease approach" of removing one restriction at a time isn't working for organizers.
Roy, with the Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux, said the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix is set to take place in June, followed by events such as the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and the Festival d'été de Québec.
"These major events have to know in advance if they will be able to open with and under which conditions," Roy said in an interview Monday.
He said some international artists may not want to book performances in Quebec if they don't know whether they'll actually be able to perform. If Montreal's festivals aren't able to host large events, he said, then the city's reputation will take a hit.
"On a long-term basis, we'll lose our credibility in the industry and it will take many years to re-establish our credibility," he said.
Roy said the lack of a clear reopening calendar is frustrating, especially given that Ontario's government has announced a plan to fully reopen the economy and events across the United States and Europe are able to take place with few or no restrictions.
"On March 1 in Ontario, it will be full capacity inside and outside," Roy said. "I'm not saying that we need to do it in March, but we need to have a date."
Montreal's tourism promotion agency is calling for a reopening plan for convention centres.
Manuela Goya, vice-president at Tourisme Montréal, said major conferences scheduled to take place this summer are up in the air, and she said she worries if those events are cancelled, they might not return to Montreal for years.
"All we want is a reopening calendar — not a quick opening immediately," she said in an interview Monday. "Just a bit of oxygen so we can say to promoters, 'we are in business.'"
In 2019, she said conferences and conventions brought an estimated $360 million in economic benefits to the city of Montreal.
On Sunday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante also called on the provincial government and public health officials to provide a clear reopening plan for the cultural and events industries.
"This vagueness is intolerable," she wrote on Facebook. "For two years, the restaurant, hotel, business tourism and entertainment industry have been hit hard by the pandemic. Their biggest challenge is the uncertainty that they face."
Earlier on Monday, the Health Department said COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 14 compared with the prior day, to 2,425, after 141 people entered hospital and 127 were discharged. It said 178 people were in intensive care, an increase of one from the day before.
Officials also reported 20 more deaths attributed to COVID-19.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2022.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Jacob Serebrin, The Canadian Press
