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Music

OVO Fest Deserves Provincial Funding

Why did the most popular rapper in the world just receive a $300,000 grant to put on the fifth iteration of his OVO Festival?

Yesterday, Global News published a story online detailing how Drake's fifth annual OVO Fest has received $300,000 in grant money from the Celebrate Ontario program, administered by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Immediately, readers were upset that the most successful, and arguably the most famous rapper in the world, would deem it appropriate to receive any sort of subsidy from a government program. As a taxpayer, I myself was left wondering when I could expect to find my complimentary tickets in the mailbox. For context, Drake's two day hip-hop festival is receiving $7,000 more than the 10 day Toronto Jazz Festival, which recorded an attendance of 210,000 in 2011, despite the fact that OVO Fest is only expected to sell out the Molson Ampitheatre's 16,000 capacity venue on the two days of the event, August 3rd and 4th. That being said, Kanye wouldn't show up to a fucking jazz festival (Outkast might).

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According to the government's website, the grant awarded (Celebrate Ontario 2014) "helps new or existing Ontario festivals and events enhance programs, activities and services that will lead to long-term improvements. This support helps grow tourism in the province by making it easier for festival and event organizers to offer new and improved experiences that will attract more tourists and increase visitor spending." It's clear that the purpose of the grant is primarily to influence tourism into the city, but since "non-locals" are defined by the government as anyone living "up to 40km away," that technically means that suburbanites travelling in from Newmarket are considered incoming tourists.

And although $300,000 may seem like a lot of money to the layman, it's important to remember that we're dealing with rappers. In the world of performing musicians, 300 racks isn't even enough to book a top tier artist. Jay Z doesn't even set the alarm on his Samsung for less than half a million. As this year's OVO Festival is set to feature Outkast, who is coming to Toronto as part of their summer festival circuit, it's worth noting that the rap duo is probably not coming to Toronto for free.

This grant money will also go toward expanding OVO Fest beyond being a concert experience. Sources provided Noisey with details regarding what the funding will go towards, most of which seemed to be working towards developing a community outreach program centred around OVO, including a series of industry seminars and workshops hosted by young Toronto professionals and a celebrity athletic event.

Drake's involvement and love for the city of Toronto has never been a secret. At every opportunity he's had in his career, Drake has made it a point to give back to his hometown. Most recently, he's been working on developing the young R&B acts in the city in addition to being a global ambassador for the Toronto Raptors. Almost any artist making music in Canada has at one time or another received a grant for the purpose of advancing their art form, so shouldn't the most successful artist in the world be able to take advantage of the same system?

Up until this year, the OVO Festival has been primarily funded by Drake himself. Every year it has occurred, it sold out the venue with ease and became the talk of the rap world for weeks after, due mainly to the surprise guests. If any festival is worthy of additional funding, it's one that helps Toronto not only boost it's tourism during the course of the event, but also expand it's profile on the global music stage. There are potential improvements that could be made to help OVO Fest reach peak efficiency, such as moving to a larger venue (like the Air Canada Centre, which Drake vowed to do at the end of the third OVO Fest) or making the event span longer than just two days. But these are the types of improvements that take time and money to make. If the hometown can help with one of those, then why shouldn't they?

Photo courtesy of HustleGrl

@SlavaP is a writer living in Toronto who pays taxes and therefore is waiting for his complimentary ticket.