The tourism minister says government is willing to work with the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society to help keep the annual folk festival going, but does admit the organization has work it needs to do internally to make that happen.
Earlier this week the society announced that this year’s festival in Bannerman Park will likely be the last after losing core funding from Arts NL.
President Julie Vogt has admitted that the funding was lost because they “weren’t doing (their) jobs,” noting that they weren’t meeting basic benchmarks to receive it.
Folk Arts Society executive director Julie Vogt.
Fred Hutton says since 2022 the Folk Arts Society has received nearly half a million dollars in funding from the province, $100,000 of which was given to them earlier this year when they initially announced the festival was in trouble.
Ultimately, Hutton says the society needs to figure out its internal problems.
He says they need to sit down with Arts NL to make sure they have a “sustainable project” moving forward.
