Plans for Niagara music festival shelved

After more than five years of working on plans to create an international summer music festival on a lakefront site in the Niagara-on-the-Lake region, the National Arts Centre and Toronto Symphony have given up because of difficulties in obtaining government funding for the $76-million project.

The two organizations had been working on plans for an ambitious international festival in the area that also hosts the Shaw Theatre Festival. Though spearheaded by the NAC Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony, which both would have performed there each summer, the proposed festival would have been run as an independent organization with its own board.

The project would have required construction of an amphitheatre and development of the site. Organizers had hoped to receive funding of about $25.5 million each from the federal and provincial governments, and would have raised the rest privately.

The NAC said the project would have attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the region each year, and said the idea was supported by the area's business community. But NAC communications director Rosemary Thompson said it became clear in recent months that the funding would not come through.

"It was the economy more than anything else. In the beginning, when we started working on this, there was a lot of enthusiasm shown by all levels of government. That was 51/2 years ago. Then we had this huge economic downturn, and priorites changed for all levels of government, so it was going to be incredibly tough."

She said the NAC has no plans to revive the project.

"We still believe it's a fantastic idea and it should happen someday, but the likelihood of that right now is slim. We don't think it could be revived until the economy improves."

NAC president Peter Herrndorf said the project has been "an extraordinary labour of love for everyone involved. And we very much hope that others will follow in our footsteps to pursue this dream in the years to come."

In a statement, Toronto Symphony president Andrew Shaw said "the feasibility and sustainability work on this concept is now done, and perhaps when the economy improves others will revive this wonderful idea."