Edmonton Blues Festival 2025 cancelled due to high costs

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Money woes spurred the cancellation of 2025’s Edmonton Blues Festival, organizers announced Thursday.

Costs have increased “dramatically,” by 40 to 60 per cent, festival producer Cam Hayden told Postmedia on Saturday. 

“We’re not immune to those economic pressures,” he said, noting the impacts of inflation, the pandemic, decreasing sponsorship, slow ticket sales, and a closed Hawrelak Park amphitheatre.

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“We can’t raise ticket prices to offset those increased costs. People have to decide where they’re going to spend their discretionary income, and things like entertainment often end up first on the chopping block because they’re not essential to life.” 

Hayden is sad but realistic about the decision. 

“I don’t want to have a situation where somebody ends up getting shortchanged at the end of the day because we don’t have enough money to cover costs,” he said.

Consider everything that goes into a festival: fencing, portable toilets, rental vans to move performers, artist fees, airfares, catering, tables and chairs, and T-shirts and food for 250 volunteers.

“It just becomes, after a while, impossible. We’re not the only ones,” Hayden said, citing the Vancouver Island MusicFest’s pause and the Byron Bay Bluesfest’s end. 

“Everybody’s dealing with the same sort of inflationary pressure.”

The fest costs “hundreds of thousands but under a million,” Hayden said, declining to name a number.

“The festival has lost money in the last three years,” he said.

“We had a pretty sizable emergency fund, which we managed to squirrel away over the first 22 years of the festival, and that’s very much depleted at this point.”

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Fans are sad, but they get it, Hayden said.

“The economic pressures that any event is facing right now are the same as the ones they are facing in their own homes,” he said.

The decision wasn’t made lightly, he said, adding the turning point was a dinner with crew co-ordinators.

“We talked for probably two or three hours about how things have gone and what the future might hold, and we decided this was the best course of action,” Hayden said.

‘It’s been a struggle’

The last time the festival was at Hawrelak was in 2022, with attendance down because “people were still a little bit reluctant to get out in crowds” during the pandemic, according to Hayden.

In 2023 and 2024, the event had to move due to park renovations.

“It’s been a struggle finding an appropriate venue,” Hayden said. “The amphitheatre is really one of the best venues for a small to medium-sized event that I’ve seen in North America, and I’ve been to a lot of festivals across the continent.” 

The goal is to be back in full swing at Hawrelak Park in 2026. 

“Nobody can foresee two years into the future, but it’s a pretty good possibility. That is our plan at this point, that we’ll have enough money to get the wheels rolling,” Hayden said.

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“In a perfect world, I’d like to see the festival continue long into the future.” 

Hayden, the festival producer since Day 1, feels blessed to have put on this blues show for the last quarter-century.  

“I’ve met so many great people being able to be part of an event that brings a lot of happiness and joy and music to people who really look forward to it every year,” he said.

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