Features
Canadian Club Crunch
Heavy snow and a December transit bus strike has put a damper on concert attendance at clubs in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, leaving venue operators and promoters in limbo.
A Jan. 21 Anberlin show at Babylon reportedly drew a good crowd but venue manager Ryan Dean said that wasn’t the norm.
“You should have been here the rest of the week,” Dean told the Ottawa Citizen, adding that hip-hop duo Clipse barely drew 150 people.
Dean said the club’s average attendance dropped 20 percent to 25 percent since the strike began.
The bad weather, ticket costs plus $50 cab rides for cross-city transportation has reportedly prompted music fans to look for entertainment closer to home.
Even some local musicians have abandoned rehearsal plans because of the bus strike, the paper said.