Tall Tree Festival Takes A Break

High production costs and a low Canadian dollar have apparently forced Tall Tree Music Festival in Port Renfrew, British Columbia, to take a one-year hiatus.

– Tall Tree Music Festival Logo

The independent festival, which is largely run by volunteers, was expected to take place in June at Port Renfrew’s Brown Mountain. A post on the event’s website said the festival has not turned a profit in the eight years since it was founded.

“Festivals across B.C. have struggled in recent years with a low Canadian dollar and market over-saturation, which has made an already tough financial climate even tougher,” the post said. “In eight years the event has yet to make a profit. That fact combined with other challenges in 2017 mean we have decided to take a year off to re-group.”

Tall Tree co-founder Mike Hann told the Times Colonist that Brown Mountain’s remote location increases already high production costs.

“I’d say it’s one of the more logistically challenging events around,” Hann told the paper. “The costs we bear would be above and beyond a lot of other festivals.”

Tall Tree is the latest Canadian festival to face trouble in recent year. The British Columbia-based Squamish Valley Music Festival was cancelled in 2016, followed by Pemberton Music Festival, whose organizers declared bankruptcy earlier this year.

“The rate at which these festivals have been happening, and what has become the status quo, is not sustainable. In a market that’s saturated, you need to stand out. But with that, your costs go up,” Hann told the Colonist.

More than 2,500 fans attended the 2017 edition of Tall Tree, which featured performances by Tokyo Police Club, Shapeshifter  and Easy Star Allstar. 

Tall Trees organizers still plan on moving forward with the smaller Song and Surf Music Festival slated for Feb. 9-11 in Port Renfrew.