Music Industry Initiative Wraps!

by Route97 October 29, 2021

18 OCTOBER 2021 (Penticton, BC)

Today, Route 97 Culture announces the success thanks to support from Amplify and Creative BC, their initiative to establish new and unique live music venues and promoter relationships across the BC interior. The goal of this initiative was to forge alliances with commercial partners (wineries, breweries, organic farms), academic institutions (colleges and universities), Indigenous organizations, tourism partners, arts councils and other pre-existing venue partners – in order to bring young emerging and established artists to the region. Funded by Creative BC’s Amplify program which supports the province’s music industry sector, many of these goals were met, with the participation of 18 venue partnerships situated throughout the region, resulting in upwards of 64 new performances being added to the BC events calendar for 2022. (List of partners is below).

Coupled with a commitment to strongly support artists from a diversity of backgrounds, Mandy Wheelwright of Blister Management, and project co-lead Mark Greenhalgh of Misty Mountain Productions, along with Julie Fowler, Paul Crawford, Kate Wattie, Tori Jewell, Deb Beaton-Smith, Matt Rands, and Greg Curtis (promoter consultant) will now be able to truly assist the venue partners in bringing numerous diverse, emerging and established younger Canadian artists to perform in the BC interior.

This project, by design, aims to grow and develop BC’s music ecosystem by solving problems and by having this new network of stakeholders invest in BC and Canadian talent. By finding new performance venues, working out new promoter relationships, developing stronger interconnectedness between the Route 97 Culture partners this project will help build a viable touring corridor in the BC Interior for all artists. The team is especially pleased that all our project partners recognize the need to be working together to help provide market access to the younger artists whose choices of places to perform in the region have been limited and made worse by the Covid 19 pandemic. All involved in this initiative believe in the goal of connecting young talent to the region and providing a wide demographic of audience including young audiences with artists they can relate to and be inspired by.

ROUTE 97 CULTURE PARTNERS

Caravan Farm Theatre | Carlin Hall | Cleland Theatre | Covert Farms | Festivals Kelowna | Historic Hat Creek Ranch – Bonaparte First Nation | Jason Parkes Customs | Monte Creek Winery | Okanagan College | Quaaout Lodge & Talking Rock Gulf Resort | Revelry Food+Music Hub | Song Sparrow Hall | The Dream Cafe | The Frank Venables Theatre | Thompson Rivers University – TRU Tourism Management Department | Truck 59 Cider House | UBC Okanagan Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre