By: Jack Brittle, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca
Earlier this month, the City of Burlington announced that its search for a new organization to run a music festival at Spencer Smith Park was over.
The city previously decided in October to discontinue municipal financial support to Sound of Music (SOM) “due to ongoing financial instability and non-compliance with agreements and conditions.”
It then decided to reallocate $150,000, originally earmarked for SOM, to the Community Investment Fund.
The city then put out a call for expressions of interest from potential event organizers, which concluded with staff choosing MRG Live Ltd. as the new face of Burlington’s Waterfront Music Festival, which is the working title for the event.
Due to MRG’s status as a for-profit organization, it is not eligible for the $150,000 grant, meaning it will be able to put on the festival without it.
Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward elaborated on this fact.
“Their model right now is for-profit,” Meed Ward said. “But what that actually means for the community is that they’re not eligible for the $150,000 grant. So that money remains available for other uses in the city at the moment. The city is not funding a for-profit entity. That’s against our policy.”
“The money remains in the cities, festivals, and events pocket,” Meed Ward continued. “And if there are other festivals, or if this organization creates a local nonprofit, there’s an opportunity for them to access it, for example. We could see a number of different things happening next year.”
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman said that it is his understanding that entry to the festival will remain free of charge.
“The guys who have been identified in the report (MRG Live Ltd.) are pretty substantial players,” Sharman said. “And, you know, this is my point about having somebody who’s got a good track record, got skin in the game. If they’ve said that they can do it for free, these people know how to do that.”
Meed Ward said that city staff organized a public survey that came to the conclusion that keeping the festival free was a key priority.
“It was clear from the survey that there was a lot of support to continue with the free festival,” Meed Ward said. “That’s certainly what I heard from the community, that the free admission was a key part of the legacy and the brand of our waterfront festival, which has been ongoing for decades.”
Sharman said that council delegated the decision to staff: “We didn’t want to make a political choice, one way or the other. We really wanted it to be an objective, independent decision.”
The city received proposals from 12 different groups to organize the festival.
Meed Ward said that she never doubted that the city could find another group to head up the event.
She said that a “broad group of stakeholders” also reviewed the proposals.
“It wasn’t just city staff,” Meed Ward said. “Halton Regional Police, Burlington Performing Arts Centre, the downtown BIA, and Burlington Tourism and Economic Development were just some of the folks that were around the table with staff reviewing the 12 proposals and came to a unanimous consensus that there was one that they wanted to go with.”
Sharman spoke about the breakdown between SOM and the city.
“In the end, they ran out of money,” Sharman said. “They had a situation where they borrowed money from the city, $200,000 for 2024, and they couldn’t pay it back to us. And then in 2025, we lent them more money, and then they lost that money, and couldn’t pay some of the corporations that had their suppliers, from what I understand.”
“If you were to read the corporate report that came to council, they were looking for money from City Council,” Sharman continued. “And we said, ‘Well, okay, but you owe us money. How can we do business with you if you owe us money and you can’t pay us back?’ So really, that killed the Sound of Music. It wasn’t the city. It just died because it ran out of money, and we couldn’t keep bailing them out.”
SOM also requested an increase in the city’s annual grant for the festival from $150,000 to $300,000.
“All in, it would have been three-quarters of a million dollars,” Meed Ward said. “And council felt that that was too big an ask.”
More information about SOM’s proposal to the city can be found here.
Sharman complimented the work of former SOM executive director Dave Miller and said that after the change in the board of directors, things just didn’t work out. He said that the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic had on the festival also led to the situation that they ended up in. Sharman said that he also appreciates the fact that the music industry is “a challenging business.”
Meed Ward also thanked the SOM organization and board.
“We are going to honour what has been built by the community over many decades by many different people,” Meed Ward said. “And I want to thank everyone up to and including the current board and volunteers who invested in the festival. And I hope that they will, if they want to, be a part of this event.”
Sharman said that MRG also wants to continue last year’s SOM precedent of having an all-Canadian lineup of artists and bands.
“It’s good for promoting Canadian bands,” Sharman said. “That wasn’t the case in prior years. It really became [that way] more recently in 2025 because of the tariffs and, I mean, that was really what that was about, and we still haven’t got over all that.”
Sharman said that he is hopeful that Canada’s relationship with the United States will become more cordial eventually and that the festival can get back to more international programming in the coming years.
“I don’t think those bands had anything to do with the administration in the United States,” Sharman said.
Meed Ward said, however, that “those details are still to be worked out.”
“We’re going to get a subsequent report in April,” Meed Ward said. “But certainly we will have…all Canadian or significantly Canadian; definitely there will be Canadian and local talent. A key part of our waterfront music festival has been supporting local, homegrown talent.”
SOM put out a statement on December 7 regarding the city’s decision.
“From recent online reports, we are aware that the City plans to work with a non-local, national for-profit operator, pending full approval from Council. We wish them both well in 2026.”
Sharman noted that “the difference in not-for-profit and for-profit is simply a tax code.”
“I think the for-profit company is very, very capable and competent,” Sharman said. “This is not just a for-profit company. This is a substantial, successful company. It’s to the benefit of the community to have an organization that has a good track record and has proven itself to be viable.”
Meed Ward spoke about the fact that MRG is not a local organization.
“MRG is based out west,” Meed Ward said. “They are a for-profit festival and event provider. They provide free local community festivals in cities across the West Coast, and they’re branching out east. Their model is to work with the local community.”
“The local component will be provided by volunteers,” Meed Ward continued. “It’ll be provided by acts, and it’ll be provided by the people that they have on the ground running this. And they’ll be working with local businesses, they’ll be working with the community and volunteers. I have no doubt about that at all.”
Reactions to the announcement have been mixed, with many lamenting the loss of SOM.
A community member asked in a Facebook comment under SOM’s statement, “How is it the city of Burlington’s small contribution was the pivotal point in the SOM continuing? This should have been a corporate-sponsored event all along.”
Another community member said under the same post, “Hopefully SOM will find a new location and continue this legacy for many years to come.”
A reply to that post said, “Great read, and it’s sad the City didn’t allow for a dialogue, or reach out to voters on this issue. It’s such a shame. I’d rather rake and bag my own leaves and keep SOM, for example.”
Under the city’s post announcing the new organizer, one reply said, “Fantastic news! MRG (highly experienced events and entertainment company) is much welcomed.”
Another resident echoed that sentiment: “…if do your homework, the new company actually has a pretty good reputation and a lot of big stuff under their belt.”
Meed Ward said that although there is new leadership, the festival will not fundamentally change that much.
“What has not changed is that we will have a local free waterfront music festival on Father’s Day weekend as we have done for decades,” Meed Ward said. “What’s changing is it’s a different operator that is able to do it without the city investment at the moment.”
Discover more from The Milton Reporter
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
