Low attendance may force Dreamspeakers to move.

Windspeaker Staff Writer

EDMONTON

Organizers are looking at moving the annual Dreamspeakers Festival away from Edmonton after another year of poor attendance.

Dreamspeakers showcases international Indigenous culture, and for the seven years the festival has been held, the crowds have not been there to support the entertainers featured.

"We are always bugged about the attendance," said the festival's executive director, Sharon Shirt. "There's never been high attendance since Dreamspeakers started."

Actual estimates of the number of people attending this year's outdoor events at Hawrelak Park were not available, but during the May 29 opening ceremonies, the 115 volunteers for the week-long festival made up the main part of the audience.

Shirt and the rest of the organizers are now examining whether the festival should continue in the Edmonton market.

"Do they really want to see this anymore?" she asked, adding that there have been requests to re-locate the $350,000 production.

"We've had requests from other centres across Canada to move it out of Edmonton."

Not all the events at this year's festival were poorly attended. Shirt said the Aboriginal Film Awards had almost 100 per cent attendance by award winners. Unfortunately, few people besides the winners turned out for the event, as two-thirds of the seats in the Citadel's MacLab Theatre were empty.

Shirt said there were also some positive things about this year's event.

The move to the outdoor stage at Hawrelak Park seemed to work very well this year, she said. Last year's event was held indoors at the Mayfield Inn.

"Being outside gave a better sense of freedom, and we got some very good feedback about it," she said.

Shirt said the outdoor concerts' daily $15 admission price wasn't the reason for the poor attendance. She said people are willing to pay for quality, and it costs more to bring the high calibre performers in.

"If we gave the public a two-bit performance then we could charge two-bits for it," Shirt said. "But these guys were tops. We had to pay them what they deserve."

This year's entertainers included New Zealand's Maree Sheehan, singing trio Ulali from the United States and South America's Allpa Kallpa.

Shirt explained away some of the problems to "growing pains." She said the festival organizers are still trying to find the right spark to give the event the recognition it deserves.

For the next few months, Dreamspeakers staff will evaluate what needs to be done to create a better festival. Whether the festival is moved out of Edmonton or not will be a big part of the discussions.

Losing the event may shock the city into wanting to support it more, she said.

"Maybe if we moved it out it would make people wonder where it is."