{"id":3955,"date":"2014-03-30T13:10:30","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T17:10:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ohsodj.com\/?p=3955"},"modified":"2014-03-30T13:10:30","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T17:10:30","slug":"drakes-ovo-fest-grant-receives-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/?p=3955","title":{"rendered":"Drake’s OVO Fest Grant Receives Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"wylt.ohsodj\"<\/a>First they’re sweet, then they’re sour.<\/p>\n

While in America we were dapping up Drizzy for scoring his $300,000 grant for his OVO Fest, in Canada it was a big hoopla – and not in a positive way.<\/p>\n

So, remember it was announced that Drake scored government funding last week<\/a>. A brand new charity partnership, basketball tournament, celebrity panel and beach party added to Drake\u2019s OVO Fest were among the reasons his annual sold-out Toronto music festival received the $300,000 grant from the Ontario government designed to attract tourism.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccording to OVO Fest, this year\u2019s enhanced programs will lead to long-term improvements and an expected increase of over 15,000 in attendance,\u201d Michael Chan, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Chan, told Billboard.com. \u201cOVO Fest anticipates that the event will grow in attendance from 16,000 in 2013 to 32,000 in 2014, to 60,000 by 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of OVO Fest\u2019s enhancement proposal includes a basketball tournament — which organizers anticipate will draw 5000 people — a two-day beach party and the OVO Celebrity Panel Summit, to be held at locations other than the concert venue. The OVO Celebrity Panel Summit is partnering with The Remix Project \u2014 a Toronto based charity that provides creative educational programs, facilitators and facilities to youth from underserved communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sounds good right. \u00a0Well, this caused some criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrake\u2019s OVO Fest scores $300,000 from Ontario taxpayers\u201d read the headline on Global News\u2019 web site, setting off similar stories of taxpayers footing the bill.<\/p>\n

Many of the online comments and media reports suggested Drake doesn\u2019t need the money and should pay the $300k himself.<\/p>\n

The frustration was elevated when the Beaches International Jazz Festival in Toronto was denied funding from Celebrate Ontario. This summer festival draws a half-million people over 10 days and is in its 26th year. The festival generates $65 million into the Toronto economy.<\/p>\n

Other music festivals which got the grant include Canadian Music Week \u2013 Fanfest ($100,000), NXNE at Yonge-Dundas Square ($300,000), Edgefest 2014 ($100,000), Digital Dreams Festival ($300,000), RBC Bluesfest 20th Annversary ($300,000), Mariposa Folk Festival ($38, 250), Stratford Summer Music ($89, 250), Boots and Heart Music Festival ($300,000), Wakestock Sports & Music Festival ($73, 950) Buskerfest ($53, 125).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have a strict criteria to assess for individual, incoming proposals,\u201d says Minister Chan, \u201cbased on organizational capacity, based on the information of the project, based on sustainability for now and into the future; based on attracting tourists and, also, based on the program — ability to attract accommodated support or accommodated partnerships. So there is a variety of elements or factors to assess all these incoming proposals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artistic director Bill King of Beaches told Billboard his festival wanted to add an extra week to introduce a new blues festival and have additional stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said on Facebook, [Drake] just dropped 50 grand on strippers and threw the money around the room,\u201d said King, referring to a gossip report in early March. \u201cThat 50 grand would\u2019ve paid for our Youth Stage, our Latin Stage and our Big Band stage. If he\u2019s throwing around his money, that\u2019s how loose and carefree he is with his money. Why doesn\u2019t he lay out the 300 grand for his own show and then that money\u2019s free for us and other people?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rule here is decision making is not based on past funding history and the whole program Celebrate Ontario is quite competitive,\u201d Minister Chan explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut one quick thing about the [Beaches] Jazz Festival, I looked at their history, they not only applied to Celebrate Ontario in my Ministry, they actually applied to a number of other programs that my Ministry offers. In the last few years, they were able to get over $700,000 from my Ministry from different programs. Sometimes you get one, sometimes you don\u2019t get them.<\/span><\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n

In light of the media attention in Toronto, the Ministry just announced that the Beaches Jazz Festival — which applied to the Ontario Music Fund — was later awarded a conditional grant of $75,000.<\/p>\n

That’s a lot of info so I hope everyone followed. \u00a0I’ll give you the cliff notes … Once again this is hate at it’s best. Drake applied for the grant. He completed the paperwork in its entirety, properly. When it comes to grants especially, it’s not just whether you’re worthy. \u00a0You have to complete the necessary paperwork completely, accurately and of quality value. However because Drake\u00a0– and I’m assuming OVO is a separate entity from him – is well off, people are in an uproar. \u00a0If these festival owners spent half as much time focusing on their events rather than Drake’s pockets, they may be more successful. Looks like his baby was able to put in all in perspective though.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"badgal\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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First they’re sweet, then they’re sour. While in America we were dapping up Drizzy for scoring his $300,000 grant for his OVO Fest, in Canada it was a big hoopla – and not in a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[366,807],"class_list":["post-3955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-drake","tag-matrix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7qLKy-11N","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ohsodj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/wylt-ohsodj.jpg?fit=220%2C220&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ohsodj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}