Scaling back, rising up: Overcoming funding cuts at Up Here 9
To our valued community,
We have some heartbreaking news to share.
Four days ago, we learned one of our major funding sources—one we’ve successfully received from the Province of Ontario, year after year—was cut, outright.
We had anticipated and budgeted for some funding reductions, due to the government of Ontario reducing the total envelope from $50M in 2022 back down to $19.5M this year, but with Up Here’s proven track record, growing out-of-town attendance, and an overall economic impact of over $5M to date, we never imagined our funding would be eliminated entirely.
We are not alone. Many other festivals across the province are in the same boat as us, scrambling to figure out the impact of these cuts at the eleventh hour.
Mystery Tour stop at the Big Nickel in Sudbury during Up Here 2018. Photo: Vanessa Tignanelli
Let us assure you we have spent the past four days tirelessly exploring every avenue to mitigate the impact this situation creates. However, these cuts, three weeks out from our event, and the irresponsible rollout of the Experience Ontario program by the government of Ontario, has forced us to make impossible but necessary decisions in order to ensure the survival of the festival and the future of our organization.
This sucks. We have been left with no choice but to scale back some of our previously announced programming. We will be rolling out these programming changes today, but it is important for us to be transparent about the changes we have been forced to implement due to Experience Ontario's decision not to fund Up Here.
We are forced to cancel some of our late-night shows on Friday and Saturday and move those acts to our main stage on Up Here Square.
The Friday show at Place des Arts will be cancelled entirely, and we will be rescheduling the artists elsewhere in the program.
Elizabete Balčuz from Latvia will no longer be performing at the festival. This is crushing and was our only overseas act of 2023. We were all looking forward to having her at this year’s festival.
Some art installations will regrettably be cut entirely, while others will be scaled back.
We are forced to suspend the creation of a new mural by Katie Green, but rest assured, we are committed to bringing her back next year. Katie is amazing, and we are absolutely gutted to have to make this decision.
While we are determined to keep the Mystery Tour, we will have to scale it back and cut the bus. So, we’re not all going down two kilometers to SNOLAB to see Geddy Lee this year, guys. Sorry.
We will be reaching out to those who bought tickets to the affected events soon.
We understand these changes may be disappointing. We also recognize these changes directly affect artists, their financials, exposure, and arts practice, but please know our commitment to delivering an exceptional experience remains unwavering.
This setback serves as an opportunity for all of us to come together as a united community, like we’ve done so many times in the past, and show our support for Up Here, this festival we all cherish.
We have been blown away by the overwhelming support and rapid response from our partners as we actively appealed these cuts with the Minister, including glowing letters of support from Mayor Paul Lefebvre and from Economic Development at the City of Greater Sudbury. Your support speaks to the significance and impact of Up Here on the cultural and economic landscape of our region.
What can you do to help?
Get your passports and tickets right now. Sudbury is notoriously a last-minute ticket buying town. Stop making us sweat. Get on it at uphere.com/tickets.
Volunteer and drag a friend along with you. Sign up at uphere.com/volunteer.
Host an artist. Become a super host and billet an artist in your home during the festival at uphere.com/host.
Sponsor Up Here. It’s not too late, and every little bit helps, especially right now. Partner up at uphere.com/partnerup or by reaching out to jaymie@uphere.com.
Donate. You might not think a small contribution matters, but it does. It always has, and we celebrate each dollar. uphere.com/donate.
Together, we can overcome this challenging period and emerge stronger, proving that even in the face of adversity, our community's spirit and support are unwavering.
Thanks to all our other steadfast funders for their support, we appreciate you: the City of Greater Sudbury, the Government of Canada, and the Ontario Arts Council. And a huge shoutout to our sponsors and vendors who have been with us since the very beginning of this wild idea: Downtown Sudbury, Barrydowne Paint, Equipment World, RBC Royal Bank, Greater Sudbury Utilities, Collège Boréal, STC/Yes Theatre, Aaron Luxe, Exclaim!, BeaconLite, Norcat, Studio123, Duplicators, CôtéGold, Glencore, Agilis Networks, Appleless, Quality Inn Sudbury, Gateway City Brewery, Collective Arts Brewing, Strait & Narrow, Sudbury.com, Rewind 103.9, Hot 93.5 and so many more.
We are so well surrounded and could not pull this off without you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
And to you, you beautiful freaks and believers in this special festival we’ve built together, thank you for being there, for understanding, and for being an integral member of our festival family.
The only way out is through, and up.
Your friends at Up Here
Up Here’s impact at a glance
Over $5M economic impact to date
$700,000+ paid in artist fees since 2015
75,000+ festival-goers since 2015
102 paid positions since 2015
73+ new pieces of public art since 2013
45,000+ volunteer hours since 2015
Update from August 2
We learnt through the media that the Ministry of Tourism stated that our funding application was allegedly "missing required documents and as a result, failed to meet the established program criteria."
This comes as complete news to us, and is at odds with communications we've received from the Ministry. The letter we received clearly stated that our application was "carefully reviewed and assessed based on the strength of the proposal against established program criteria."
We have thoroughly reviewed our application. There are no missing documents. Further, the Experience Ontario portal does not allow for an incomplete application to be submitted. If an application was indeed missing a document, it is customary for agents to inform those organizations, and there would have been no reason to wait months to inform ineligible applicants. At the very least, it would have been noted in the rejection letter received late last week.
We've requested a meeting with the Ministry in order to get clarification and their response was as follows:
"We will contact you within 15 business days to schedule a meeting."
Up Here starts in 16 days.
We're moving on. We’ve poured our hearts into programming an incredible festival and can’t wait to dance under the Dome with you all soon.