Local promoter John Steele says challenges booking acts during a specific two-week window was part of the reason why he decided to put the annual Iceberg Alley performance series on a one-year hiatus.

Brigus Productions made the announcement last week citing “the increasing competitiveness of securing the level of talent” that audiences expect.

Steele says scheduling challenges were another major issue.

“We were planning on doing June 24th to July 4th this year and just trying to make that fit with acts scheduled didn’t work, and other acts came back and the pricing that they wanted was high, so we just decided that we’ve got to take a break from this and regroup, and come back in ’27.”

He says music promotion is a highly competitive business.

“You’re competing with the world” says Steele, “you’re competing with North America, there’s lots of festivals, there’s lots of touring going on, and this is not something that’s unique to us. A lot of festivals, a lot of venues are having trouble securing acts, and it’s a challenge.”

“It’s not insurmountable, but this year we were just too far down the road to go, that we could put together a roster that’s going to be viable. So we said rather than doing it for the sake of doing it, we’ll just take a sabbatical and come back next year. “