By Pepper Parr
August 13th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Do you get the impression that Sound of Music (SoM) is scrambling?
And can you smell the political interference? Out of the blue, the Mayor issues a statement expressing her complete support for the SoM. A day later there is a statement from SoM setting out the gravity of their financial condition.
The audience is there. Should they be asked to pick up some of the cost?
SoM is a business – it just isn’t being run as a business. While discussing a financial problem at City Council SoM chair Dave Sheppard responded: “I’d just like it to go away”.
On that occasion someone came forward and directed the Community Foundation to send funds to SoM. We don’t know how much that was nor who made the funds available. Everything the Community Foundation does is secret as it should be.
There is a serious problem. SoM continues to look for corporate sponsorship. That model has come to an end, and the people running SoM should have been aware of that.
One of the problems at SoM has been the turnover at the leadership level. Entertainment is a very complex business – it needs people with years of experience at the helm. Sheppard, through no fault on his part, found himself serving as chair
These are the people who get things set up before the event begins
Administratively the SoM has an incredible team of people who make the wheels go around when the event has to be set up.
There are a number of opportunities for the SoM to change the direction and the funding model. Find the help from within the community – it is there.
Burlington has about 15, maybe 20 marketing organizations that are world-class operations.
Sheppard wants to get some help in identifying just who they are and approach them for help. This is something former Mayor Rick Goldring could help out with. He knows these people and is no longer part of the political process in the city.
Pull ten or so of them together – set out the situation and look to them for advice. That means opening their books
A tired-looking sign, slightly shabby.
The SoM has forgotten about its public profile. The graphics are old, tired-looking, and slightly shabby. They should have been upgraded five years ago.
That graphic defies description.
And the logo – what does it say to you? To me it looks like something put together by a ‘stoner’. Upgrade it.
Look progressive, tell the story about people who have gained the public notice they needed from the SoM stage.
This stretch of commercial activity is filled during the Sound of Music.
Mention is made by the SoM people about the economic impact on the local economy. There is no doubt that the hospitality sector does very very good business during SoM week. Why isn’t that sector putting some of that additional revenue in the SoM coffers?
The city charges the SoM music for at least half a dozen services it provides. They pay for the use of Spencer Smith Park. It would be difficult to reduce the rate for SoM but the city could get creative. They managed to find a way to get funds to Burlington Green when they ran out of sponsorship and Trillium funding.
SoM has to have a conversation with the talent. Lowering just how much is paid to those who take the stage might be due. The public would be surprised as to just how much SoM pays out to the artistic talent. It is extensive.
There are more reasons to keep the SoM as an annual event than there are to let it become something Burlington used to be known for.
The Brant Inn came to an end because of poor management.
This doesn’t have to be the reason for bringing the Sound of Music to an end.
A lot of outdated information here. The logo and marketing material was re-designed and used since the 2022 festival, and can be seen on their website soundofmusic.ca. Photos shown are from prior to 2022 (the entry archway and banner by the hotel has not been installed for several years now).
As the festival indicates in its past and current media releases, it has tried many of the marketing, cost saving, and re-structuring avenues suggested. Several prudent cost-saving measures have been implemented already. The situation is not unique to SOM, but is felt across the community festival industry.
If the festival is to survive, the business and philanthropic community will need to step up more to support it, and the public will need to step up more to volunteer.
People often say, ‘I can’t imagine Burlington without the Sound of Music Festival’. A lot of people want a free festival with great acts and headliners, without having to contribute by donating, sponsoring, or volunteering. Sure, many people do these things, but not enough people who enjoy the festival do. If the public truly wants the festival to continue to be around for years to come, now is the time to step up and pitch in, if not doing so already.
Hey Pepper;
You bring up some good points about the Sound of Music festival. The management aspect is something that gets discussed year after year but of course with no financial statements released the public really has no idea where that mismanagement might be. All we know is that there is a bill to pay after every festival and hand wringing comments about it’s possible cancellation.
Yes a music festival requires a good business manager but music festivals in general are historically one the top worst businesses you can run. Even seasoned talent has not been enough to save festivals from bankruptcy all over the world. There are just too many variables to manage over which you have no control.
Not the least of these variable is the top notch performers we get at the festival who are represented by divisions of LiveNation entertainment. LiveNation has an absolute monopoly on all the big names in music. You pay whatever they feel like in US dollars with no opportunity for negotiating fees for your little 20 minute set. No money, no big names.
This was even the demise of the Brant Inn as back in the 1960’s as talent reps were charging more and more for the names the Brant Inn had playing there for decades. Big venues were growing in Toronto and could afford to attract great talent and put a squeeze on the Brant Inn’s success.
Then there is your ridiculous statement about local talent being paid too much. If anything there are more than enough exceptional bands to warrant only unsigned Burlington talent being showcased at the festival and paid proper industry scale. The last last thing we need is more playing for free for exposure. Bands die of exposure in case you don’t know.
What we need is another music director, marketer and force of nature like the Brant Inn’s John Murray Anderson. Someone to weed out the best of the best upcoming bands and promote the hell out of them worldwide leading up to the festival. Perhaps another individual like CHUM FM’s David Marsden, who did so much for Burlington’s Battle of the Bands in the early years.
Not another corporate social media firm who only knows how to push logo’s on billion dollar clients and who have no clue about what music people love.
Editor’s note:
You write:
Then there is your ridiculous statement about local talent being paid too much. If anything there are more than enough exceptional bands to warrant only unsigned Burlington talent being showcased at the festival and paid proper industry scale. The last last thing we need is more playing for free for exposure. Bands die of exposure in case you don’t know.
Proper industry scale might need a closer look. The economics of every industry are changing. We experience that every day and learn to live with a little less. We didn’t say free – I note however that you get the Gazette free.