PRESS RELEASE - The 15th Festival Musique du Bout du Monde : a daring gagnante !
Gaspé, August 21, 2018 - The day after the 15th edition of the Festival Musique du Bout du Monde, the organizers draw up a first positive assessment of the event. The novelties and the bold choices of the programming have seduced the festival's audience.
A program under the sign of audacity
The programming choices this year were placed under the sign of audacity. Thus, festival-goers were able to discover the Dame Blanche or Fwonte under the Hydro-Québec tent, or the Italian group Kalàscima on the Loto-Québec stage. The Montreal group The Brooks, presented at the Brise-bise and on the Loto-Québec stage, left a vibrant memory in the minds of festival-goers, while the Korean group Jambinaï left a mark on the imagination with its non-conformist musical proposal. Philippe Fehmiu, spokesperson for the past 4 years at FMBM declares: "I must admit that I am very impressed by the capacity of festival-goers to abandon themselves to musical discoveries".
Minister Mélanie Joly's visit during the professional day
If the musical program was diversified, it was also the case for the parallel activities of the festival. As part of the festival's first pro meeting, the Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie, Mélanie Joly, took the time to listen to the many proposals for improvement put forward by professionals in the field who had gathered for the occasion. Faced with the labour shortage affecting the tourism industry, the community is asking that the recruitment standards in effect in the agricultural sector be applied to the tourism sector to meet the need for hiring during the summer period. In this way, tourism stakeholders could be able to employ a seasonal foreign workforce during the peak employment seasons.
The City of Gaspé, an important player in the success of the festival
This year, the City of Gaspé has become the presenter of the pre-festival, which spreads throughout the territory of the Greater Gaspé, presenting a diversified program in many villages of the community. Already an institutional partner of the festival since its creation, the City of Gaspé confirms a financial support of $450,000 for three years to allow the holding of the most important cultural and tourist event on its territory, which generates close to 3 million economic spin-offs for the community, $500,000 of new money per edition of the festival. This three-year funding will allow the organizers to have a long-term strategic budget plan, thus promoting the sustainability of Musique du Bout du Monde.
The Musique du Bout du Monde Festival presented by Loto-Québec is one of the most popular events in the region. Its diversified and original programming maintains a good balance of well-known headliners, favourites, discoveries and emerging artists.
