Wednesday Sept. 30, 2015 www.saobserver.net $1.25 GST Included
In the misty morning
Air cadet officers walk past a Cessna 182 tow plane on their way to the gliders used by cadets in the weekend training exercise at the Salmon Arm Airport on Saturday and Sunday. Cadets from Vernon, Salmon Arm and Kamloops participated in the event.
Evan BuhlEr/OBSeRVeR
Roots & Blues makes a rebound
Festival: Organizers believe this year’s event broke even, planning already underway for 2016. By Barb Brouwer OBSeRVeR STAFF
It looks like commitment, careful spending and reshaping have crafted a future for the Roots and Blues Festival. Brenda M’clellan secretary and member of the Salmon Arm Folk Music Society board, says that with a lot of hard work, it looks like the festival broke even this year – a far cry from the doom and gloom of a year ago. “In each of the areas, we’re above where we were in 2014, due to the city giving us extra money,” M’cllelan says, noting the society did get a gaming grant, but because there was no Routes and Blues this year,
it was scaled back a bit. “But we had increased the raffle (price) so it provided us with additional funding and helped close the gap. each raffle was $20 and it netted about $12,000.” M’clellan says the improved financial picture is also thanks to in-kind sponsorship from the community. “We go out to the community and they responded in a wonderful way,” she says, pointing out in-kind sponsorship increased to $175,000 from the previous $100,000. “We offered them new opportunities and things to do, such as feeding the volunteers as well as other products we get and adding shade… all of that put us ahead.” On the expense side, M’clellan says
This week A celebration of all things apple drew crowds over the weekend. Check out the action on A14. It’s a three-game winning streak for the Jr. Bantam Chargers. Read the details on A17.
We were able to turn things around; we’re still a bit challenged on the final bottom Brenda M’Clellan line... Folk Music society
about $100,000 was shaved from the budget. “We were able to turn things around; we’re still a bit challenged on the final bottom line and we do not have a positive net
income,” she says noting the drop in the canadian dollar was a huge issue as many of the artists are paid in u.S. dollars. “We have plans in place for the next three or four months and expect to be there next year.” M’clellan referred to the new and fresh look at the festival that included adding buskers and clowns along with a slate of great performers. While credit for the artist lineup goes to artistic director Peter north, many of the new innovations were thanks to david Gonella, who returned to the festival after a two-year absence. “I designed it to hide the stuff that we reSee Budget on page A2
Index Opinion ....................... A6 View Point .................. A7 Life & Times ............... A8 Sports................A17-A20 Arts & Events ... A21-A24 Time Out....................A25 Vol. 108, No. 39, 48 pages