Hamilton’s Supercrawl faces funding crunch for summer event

One of Hamilton’s biggest street events this summer is facing a cash crunch. The city will celebrate Supercrawl in September. But organizers are reeling from a sudden cut in funding by the provincial and federal governments.

Supercrawl is three days of free music and events that attract as many as 250,000 people, said to be worth about $25 million to the Hamilton economy.

Organizers of the event are pushing ahead with Supercrawl preparations even though money is running short this year.

Festival director Tim Potocic says Supercrawl’s budget is around $1.2 million.

But this summer, Ottawa and the province delivered a funding cut of about $300,000.

And it’s not just Supercrawl. Potocic says funding for other festivals has been cut back, like the recent Festival of Friends and Burlington’s Sound of Music.

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“They’re drawing hundreds of thousands of people, spending money, it’s really important for the economy and to receive these cuts it’s going to have long term effects,” said Potocic.

Ontario Tourism Minister Neil Lumsden was in town this week with money to support the Grey Cup celebrations in Hamilton.

On Thursday, his office told CHCH News that applications for festival funding are highly-competitive and assessed on the strength of the proposal.

Potocic says they’re told there are too many festivals and not enough government money and the province confirmed there were 680 festival applications in 2023 seeking $52 million from a program only budgeted for $19.5 million.

Supercrawl is set to take over James St. North on the second weekend of September.

Potocic says Supercrawl is going ahead even with a trimmed down budget.

“I will not let it die,” he said. “I will absolutely make sure it happens. I will absolutely make sure it’s 100 per cent great.”

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