What’s Changing for the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival This Year?

In this episode, we sit down with SaskJazz Executive Director Shannon Josdal to discuss how a province-wide survey of 1,400 locals completely reshaped the vision for this year's festival.

🌐 Grab your tickets for this July here: https://www.saskjazz.com/

This episode is presented by The Bamboo Podcast Network.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

How are we thinking at the uh at the office there?

SPEAKER_04 0:02

They're good. Yeah. They're good, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:04

So gearing up for the summer?

SPEAKER_04 0:06

Yeah, we're getting busy. We have all of our seasonal team on now. So we've got four students through Canada Summer Jobs and one student through the Art of Work program.

SPEAKER_05 0:15

The Art of Work.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

The Art of Work. It's like it's another funding program for young workers.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 0:21

Similar to Canada Summer Jobs, but you know, just another branch that offers some more funding, which is great. Um, yeah, and we've got our stage manager coming on soon. We've got a retail manager just started his contract, our VIP manager. So yeah, things are things are starting to go. I'm not quite so lonely about myself.

SPEAKER_05 0:41

Well, yeah, absolutely. Rooted here, business and leadership podcast. Welcome to Rooted Here. I'm your host, Rand Chetty, and today's guest is Shannon Jostal, Executive Director of the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival. Hi, Shannon.

SPEAKER_03 0:56

Hello.

SPEAKER_05 0:57

How are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:57

I'm doing good. How about you?

SPEAKER_05 0:59

Good. Greeted you can come in.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Yeah, I'm very happy to be here.

SPEAKER_05 1:02

Okay. Let's get right to it. Um can you tell us a little bit about your path to becoming the director of the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival?

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Yeah, it's a long and winding road.

SPEAKER_04 1:11

Okay, let's get into it. Yeah, I'm winding road. I'm from Regina originally, and I've been involved in music since I was three years old. Wow. Yeah, I got signed up for um a children's choir at the age of three. Okay. And just from there, I did nothing but music. Uh for most of my childhood, I played flute, piano, piccolo, bass guitar, stand-up bass.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Piccolo. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Piccolo. It's like the mini version of flute. Yeah. Like flutes most people don't know. Like there's piccolo, there's flute, there's tenor or alto flutes, and then there's bass flutes as well. Bass flutes are so big that they like candy cane around. So like the I didn't know that okay. Oh no, it's got the full the same the same keys as a flute. Yeah. And and it's it's bumped up an octave.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Yeah. If you like know like John Phillips Susan marches, you'll hear a lot of like piccolo in those. Yeah. But anyway, so I was involved in uh in music all growing up. And so like when I got to grade 12, I was like, well, I don't know what else to do. I'm gonna go do a degree in music.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

Okay, degree in music, okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

So my degree's in music from the University of Western Ontario, and then after that, I uh I went to New York City and studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Oh wow. Uh spent a year as a singing waitress in New York, did a little bit of traveling. I did some busking in Australia in my year.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:36

Um, and then when I came back to Regina after all that adventure, I kind of got into this point where I was like, I still love music, I still love it, but I just the the performing life is just it's not for me. It's not sitting.

SPEAKER_05 2:48

It can be um rolling on. Oh yeah. And not knowing where that next paycheck is.

SPEAKER_04 2:52

Not knowing where the next paycheck is, always like subject, like putting yourself out there, all of all of those kinds of things. It's it's a it's a tough life. I admire those that do it for sure. I obviously know a lot of people who do. But um, I I got home to Regina and I run ran into a woman named Marion Donnelly.

unknown 3:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

And Marion is she's just incredible. She is uh an arts and culture mastermind. And she had started this place called the Creative City Center in Regina, which was an artist, well, it still is an artist-run center in downtown Regina. And it had a 12 by 12 stage. I keep saying it in past tense because they move locations, but the original location had a 12 by 12 stage, 50 seat room, and it doubled as an art gallery. And there were several studios uh that artists would rent. And Marion, I I went to a show that was happening there while I was at home, very lost, didn't really know what I was gonna do next. And she kind of said to me, she pulled me aside. I had grown up with her son, Matthew. We'd gone to school together, and so she saw me and she's like, Shannon, how are you doing? And we talked, and she she says, you know, I'm gonna run for mayor of Regina. How would you like to take care of this place while I'm doing that? Oh and I said, Well, I'm not doing anything else. And I was the general manager at the Creative City Center for two years after that.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

Right.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yeah, and then from there I uh just kind of built a career from there. I've been um in in addition to teaching music in my own private studio, I've been the venue manager at the basement jazz club. I was also the entertainment buyer for Sega Casinos for about five years. Um I booked the entertainment for at the time it was all six of their casinos, and then we opened Gold Horse Casino in 2019. So I got to be um the entertainment buyer on that project, which was awesome. And then there was a pandemic, and when I came back, the uh the jazz festival was hiring, and I threw my hat in the ring, and now I'm here. So it's been a very long and minding road.

SPEAKER_05 4:52

Well, yeah, that's how I got here. Yeah, so I mean you kind of answered the next question there. Um, what first drew you to the world of live music and festivals?

SPEAKER_04 5:00

Yeah, I mean, uh very much so. Like like I said, I I was in music for my whole life, but the performing side just just wasn't gelling for me. And being on the other side of getting to program music and you know, create the experience, it provided me the same like joy of performance in that you're creating an experience for someone. I love being out in the field at the festival and seeing people having a great time. Yeah, there is oh god, it's the best. You see like people dancing with their kids or singing along to music, and you're like, I had a small part in making that happen. And that feels awesome. The other part of that that's awesome is being able to facilitate, you know, dreams and goals and at a base level, like career, uh, career, like valuable career experiences for local artists. Um, I always feel great when I'm able to offer a local artist like a really sweet spot in the festival that's gonna be a good opportunity for them and and get them out there. Like, I'm always really excited. It's like when you got a like a really good birthday gift for someone you care about, and you're like, I got an offer for somebody local, and it's gonna be so good. Like those kinds of things, I just like I don't know, they float my boat. I feel really, really excited to be able to facilitate that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 6:28

Now I know at the jazz festival in the past, it was kind of like a strictly jazz artist. So, how's it changed over the years? Are you just mainly jazz now, artists, or are you venturing to other types of music?

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Oh, we are all kinds of things. Is it all kinds of things? And we this is this is the most common criticism of the festival is that is this even a jazz festival anymore? And how can how can you call it jazz and this kind of thing? Well, about 50% of our lineup is core jazz.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

The thing about it is is that you can talk about jazz in so many different ways. Like, number one, jazz has evolved a lot, and that jazz in the modern sense is really in a very funk soul hip-hop lane right now, just the way that that it is. But also speaking of that, like jazz is one of the founding genres of contemporary music. Like pretty much all contemporary music can be traced back to jazz in the blues.

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 7:28

You know, like you look at at folks like Chuck Berry and and and these kinds of things, and you can't separate contemporary music from these roots. So a jazz festival is a really wide lane, just in and of itself. And one of the things that's been really exciting for the festival is that we've just uh just in February released our new rebrand. And with our rebrand is a new slogan for the festival, it's our new motto, is really the better term for it, okay, which is Prairie Loud, no wrong notes.

SPEAKER_06 7:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

And that is it's twofold. It's tongue-in-cheek to that is this even a jazz festival. Well, there are no wrong notes in jazz. Jazz is about rebellion, it's about experimentation. It was punk rock before there was punk rock, and I have to credit that phrase to Cody of Howard and Lloyd, Cody Schumacher, who who created that phrase, and I love it. But that's what it was. It was punk rock before there was punk rock. And it is all about stepping outside the lines and being willing to do that. And then the other side of that phrase is that when there's no wrong notes, there's no wrong way to be. There's no wrong wrong way to be as an artist, there's no wrong way to be as a patron or an audience member. Like this is for the community, it's for everyone. And so to get in that lane of like truly trying to pick apart jazz and say, like, this is jazz and this is not, and this belongs here and this is not, it's a waste of time to me.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

Interesting.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

We're trying to build something for the community, we're trying to build something that honors the past, that is exciting for the future, that creates opportunity for local artists, that creates opportunity for local businesses, that drives economic uh investment. We we're uh about an eight million dollar annual economic driver into the local community. So to sit there and focus on is this jazz enough?

SPEAKER_05 9:29

Exactly. Would you say jazz is like one of the most purest forms of uh music or creativity?

SPEAKER_04 9:36

It's a license. It's a license for creativity. It is a license for creativity. It's just like when you look at everything that's come from jazz, when you look at like you know, like we say, funk, soul, RB, rap, pop, you know, and all this. Rock and roll, you know, at the bass levels. There's no Beatles.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

Yeah, most people say, oh, it goes like the blues, but you're right, it goes back farther than that. Jazz did blues and the evolution of music.

SPEAKER_04 10:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 10:03

It's that's I'm a rock guy, so hey. I love a rock and jazz. You're a rock guy. But I can appreciate the jazz, though. I can appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 10:10

You're you're welcome, you're welcome too. And we've got some rock music in the festival.

SPEAKER_05 10:14

Absolutely. Um how is being rooted in Saskatchewan style? Oh, I do you have a leadership style?

SPEAKER_04 10:23

I do have a leadership style. I think it's uh I'm I'm a big we'll probably talk about it more, but I'm a big believer in results-based work. Results-based work. Results-based work. Um basically that like when I'm working with staff and I'm working with a team, we're paying for a result, we're not paying for minutes on a clock. Um, and I I'm very, you know, I'm very rooted in community in terms of my leadership. I'm very rooted in um personal relationships and in empathy in my relationships. And I think that that is a really Saskatchewan basis. Um that like I I have a very hard time, you know, separating the people that I work with and the volunteers we work with in my mind from like my neighbors, you know, that like that's and I think that's a Saskatchewan thing. And also that like the work that we do, I can never intrinsically take the festival away from its community roots, and that it is for the people. It is not about an artistic agenda, and it's you know, not necessarily about um uh like black and white numbers agenda, it's about a community impact agenda, and I think that that's a Saskatchewan thing. I I, you know, I grew up in Regina, I grew up raised by rider fans. Um, I remember seeing my dad on Rough Rider telethons answering the phone.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

I mean, like this is the this is the kind of this is the kind of province that we are. We uh we wear our values on our sleeves.

SPEAKER_05 12:05

We do, we do, absolutely. That's great answer. Um was there a defining moment when you knew this was the work you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_04 12:13

I don't know that there was so much a defining moment as so much of that it just kind of clicked and was right. Because like I said, like growing up, like music was was everything. It was everything that I was doing. Yeah, I would take, I had spares in my schedule in high school to go practice. Okay. Like that's that's like literally what it was, because otherwise, like between you know, orchestra practice and choir rehearsal, like I had choir rehearsals at seven in the morning, I had quiet jazz choir at 7 a.m., concert choir at noon, lessons after school. Like, if I didn't take spares in my schedule, when was I practicing? And so, like, that was always my life, but then you get to performing and you're like, this is just not for me. And so when I got to the other side, it was like suddenly that feeling of this is not for me was gone. And it was just this like, there's a I find that I have a joy in and I feel very fortunate to have a career in the music industry in a field that I love so much, and particularly to have a career in the music industry here in Saskatchewan. That's something that's like a big um important thing for me to push forward is the Saskatchewan music industry. Um there's so many people that think if they want to be uh a successful musician or a successful industry person or anything in the music industry that that means Toronto, Vancouver, or the United States. And that's so much not the case. And so I I feel I feel very um comfortable and fulfilled and happy doing, you know, doing those things. And so I think it was just like that feeling as a whole.

SPEAKER_05 13:56

Yeah, absolutely. Uh, how do you balance artistic vision with financial sustainability?

SPEAKER_04 14:01

So that's like asking someone in my field what is the meaning of life?

SPEAKER_05 14:06

And I know you have the answer.

SPEAKER_04 14:08

It's like it's something that you're like you're always working on, right? It's it's never like so for the 2026 season, we wrote 11 budgets for 2026. I uh like shout out to Greg Keller, who's the audit and finance chair on our board of directors. Um, you know, I would write a budget, and Greg was like, Listen, I'm not trying to make your life hard, but what if this happened? And we would write another budget, and it got to 11 different budgets because this is a hard industry, and it is a hard thing to balance that you know, for us, we're a registered charity. We have a mission, we have a mandate, we're here to provide musical experiences for the people of Saskatchewan to connect with jazz and related genres, and we also have to balance the financial reality of that, you know, and so that's that's very, very difficult and something that definitely keeps us up at night. Um, and I know that we are no different than any other not-for-profit arts agency in this community. It's been it's a hard economy that we're in, um, that we currently work through. I think one of the ways that I deal with it is to take artistic vision, like take that word out of it, and replace it with audience engagement. Because one of the things that happens in our field is when you look at a budget line for a festival like this, so many of the costs are fixed. Like a stage costs what it's what it costs, and sound equipment costs what it costs. Like it it and you can't go without these things, like fencing, fixed cost, must have. The budget line that's easiest to cut is the artistic budget line. And so, but then if we cut that, what are we even doing?

SPEAKER_00 15:56

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 15:57

So it is really looking at audience engagement, audience connection. Because I think artistic vision, sometimes we especially as like artistic individuals on the executive direction side, it starts to get a little bit of you in there. And I think as I get older and I let go of some of like the youthful idealism, you start thinking more.

SPEAKER_05 16:17

And you hate to do that in the audience. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 16:20

You hate to do you hate to do it, but it also sometimes it's like it it widens your perspective and you start focusing more on like what is the audience gonna connect with? Like, what are people like what do they wanna see? Like, even if you're booking like a discovery slot, like who is going to be the discovery artist that people are gonna be like, yeah, let me get that into my own.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

So if you do like a like a new band for like a local actor. Yeah. Discovery, okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

Yeah, like a discovery slot would be someone that's like that. You're like, I know my market doesn't know this.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:52

Right? Like you've got people who are like your hard ticket draws, and these are the folks like on this lineup this year, those are like the modest mouse.

SPEAKER_05 17:00

Modest mouth. Modest mouse.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Modest mouse. Yeah, playing this year. That you're like, yeah, every millennial knows this band.

SPEAKER_05 17:07

Okay. So if I'm hip, I gotta know these guys.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

You gotta know these guys. Okay, uh you gotta know these guys. You know, like everyone has a memory of you know, being at a party listening to Float On. You know, like that's a hard ticket draw. We we know we're gonna put them on the stage and people are gonna come for that. But a discovery slot is someone that you're like, nobody knows who these people are. But you don't so you put them in a position where like people are, you know, you put them as a direct support slot in front of a big headliner, or you put them in a spot like on a Saturday afternoon on the free stage where people are gonna come out and because you know that people are like, once they hear them, that they're gonna add that to their record collection. And so when you start to get out of the like, what's my artistic vision and what is my community gonna respond to? It starts to become a little bit easier to to balance the like hard financial realities of things with that artistic direction side. But yes, you've asked me what the meaning of life is, and I'm still figuring it out.

SPEAKER_05 18:14

We're on a journey for that, don't we? Um What are the biggest leadership challenges unique to running a festival versus a year-round business? You kind of touched on that a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:25

But uh Well, I think that the biggest one is that like we have seven days to like to make a big chunk of our of our income, and that that is like based on on that. And we, you know, we have really this year um made a huge improvement in advanced ticket sales. Advanced ticket sales are a big deal for a festival like us because you know it's one of these things like we have upfront costs. All of our artists get pretty much all of them have a 50% deposit on their contracts. We need deposits on different pieces of infrastructure and all these kinds of things. So advanced sales are really important for something for a group like us. Um the past three years has been pretty consistent that we do about 40% of our ticket sales the week of the festival, which as you can imagine is like, you know, gripping like white knuckle in it a little bit. Um this year, you know, like I said, we we worked on this rebrand project, which was very much rooted in community consultation. And one of the things that we took from that rebrand project and that survey was changing our ticketing style, and we introduced um tiers to our tickets this year where you could get discounted tickets by buying early and getting into one of the earlier purchasing tiers, and that has made a like the community really responded to that. People liked that, people were excited to to do that and saw the value in it, and that's made a big difference for us for early purchasing. And so, like I would say that those are the biggest differences. We have such a limited window, and we have to be able to capitalize, and we have to be able to incentivize buying patterns to to where we need them to be. Right.

unknown 20:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 20:15

How do you build and retain a strong team in a seasonal high pressure environment?

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Sense of humor. Um sense of humor. No, um uh the seasonal team is something that's really critical to us. So I'm the only full-time staff member of the festival. We have one part-time staff member and two year-round contractors uh that work for the festival, and everyone else is seasonal. So, number one, when we find a good seasonal hire, we treat them like gold. Right, absolutely. We want them to stay with us for a long time. Um, we access the Canada Summer Jobs program as well as Art of Work. Um, and we, you know, really try and and look for people who have one of the things we look for is customer service experience. Like if I see serving on your resume, applying for a seasonal position, like uh serving in a restaurant, you're getting an interview. Um because these are people who have dealt with a wide cross section of the public, which is something that we deal with. They've been on their feet a lot, they understand how to say, no, we don't have apple pie. I can't, you know, I can't make apple pie appear out of the sky. Like, no, we don't. Can I offer you something else? Um and and tend to be like really, really gracious with it. Um, so yeah, we look, we look for um we look for customer service experience, we look for resilience. We're outside on our feet a lot. Um, and good sense of humor. I'm actually not kidding when I say that. We look for people with a good sense of humor because this is a very unpredictable field, and so we gotta look for people that are gonna see the humor, that are gonna see the joy in things, and are going to be able Able to work well with a positive attitude with all of our patrons, all of our 450 volunteers that we bring on every year. Yeah, that's that's really the we have a huge volunteer team. Um, it's one of the largest volunteer teams in the province, and we could not get by without them. They're incredible.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Uh what roles does the festival play in shaping Saskatoon's cultural identity?

SPEAKER_04 22:28

Yeah, I think uh the festival, one of the things that we do is a lot of first. We talked earlier about like discovery slots. You know, the festival has brought artists, like so many artists, for their debut in Saskatoon. Uh Lauren Hill, Wycliffe Jean, Patty LaBelle, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Margot Price, uh Charlie Crockett. These are all artists that like played Saskatoon for the first time. Jewel in 2024 played Saskatoon for the first time through the festival. Um we've also, you know, played uh a part in the careers of Saskatchewan artists coming up. You know, as I said, we about 51% of our lineup is local every single year. Um and we also put our local artists, um, we really take pride in putting our local artists in great positions. So positions um opening or or early support slots with some of our headline artists. And so I think that's something that uh something that we do pretty well.

SPEAKER_05 23:28

Okay, that's great. Um what does rooted here mean to you in the context of this festival this year?

SPEAKER_04 23:35

Oh yeah. We are we like I said earlier, our new motto is Prairie Loud, No Wrong Notes. We talked about the no wrong notes part, but the prairie loud part is the fact that we are first and foremost a Saskatchewan. We're not pretending to be anybody else. We don't want to pretend to be Toronto or Montreal. Incredible jazz festivals. I actually like we have um something called the Jazz Festivals Canada Network, and we meet every October in Victoria to try and block book different jazz. So, like, I I have a great love affair with all of the artistic directors of jazz festivals across the country. I've never met a nicer, kinder group of professionals, but we are not them. We are not them. We are uniquely Saskatchewan. We see things a different way, and there are different artists that our people connect with, and there's different things that people want to see. I think people in Saskatchewan value like local business. Not that other places don't, but just to a next level. Like they value it so much. It's one of those things that like I love about Saskatoon is it's big enough to have great stuff, but not so big that any of it gets lost. And so you get so many people out there like, oh, I love that food truck. My neighbor's brother owns that food truck.

SPEAKER_06 24:54

Right.

SPEAKER_04 24:55

You know, that kind of thing. Um, and I think that that's that's really you know where the festival's at, and we never want to lose that.

SPEAKER_05 25:03

Um the alive the live events industry has faced major disruptions in the recent years. How do you navigate these challenges? I know you mentioned COVID and stuff that I'm not sure how that really affected me, you shut down festivals and all that stuff. Oh yeah, cool.

SPEAKER_04 25:17

I mean, COVID, uh you know, it's funny. I uh during COVID, because I had been the the entertainment buyer for Sega up until that point, and it just kind of so happened that I ended up in like double limbo because it was COVID, but I was also pregnant with my first child. So I was in double limbo in terms of like what's going to happen next. And you know, uh myself and a lot of colleagues were like, are we ever gonna work in this field again? I actually took like a bunch of science classes online during the pandemic.

SPEAKER_05 25:47

Like what kind of classes?

SPEAKER_04 25:48

I took like stats and biology and physics and chemistry.

SPEAKER_05 25:52

Just cover a bit, just back up plan, right? Yeah, well, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

It was like, is there something else I could be interested in? Is there something else I could be doing? Because like, is this coming back? I was like, I really like stats. I was like, maybe I could like do the stats of pandemics if this is the new reality. The crazy classic.

SPEAKER_05 26:09

Oh yeah. Potential be uh being uh your career or your um no your your passion being rub rubbed out for as a a a job option.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

It was it was very scary. And it in like in some ways it was hard to articulate because my husband is in the medical field, as is my sister. And so like you're like having these like existential thoughts, but you're also like, don't say it out loud, they got it way worse, you know.

SPEAKER_05 26:34

Yeah, I suppose so, yes.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

So yeah, um, but it was a challenge, but anyway, back to the question. Sorry, I talk in circles.

SPEAKER_05 26:40

No, no, no, no. Go ahead. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Um but really like there was the COVID-19 challenge, and when I started with the festival, I was hired in December of 2021 and and really got into the office in January of 2022, and so it was like we still didn't know what the 2022 festival was gonna look like and necessarily what restrictions were gonna look like. So that was a challenge. Uh, I know if like for us, we've moved out of the Besborough, we've changed title sponsors. There's been a lot of change. And I think the thing for me is I I always I call it turning forced change into purposeful evolution.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:18

So it's like when a change is forced upon you, like when you see the industry turmoil that we currently have, when these things happen to you and you don't have a choice but to deal with it, you have to think of like, how can I make this purposeful? How can I achieve other goals that we have as an organization? Like when we, you know, had to leave the Besborough, which was not something that was in our plan at the time, and we moved to Victoria Park.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 27:48

Yeah, it was it was about thinking about like what else could we achieve? And we knew that we'd wanted to achieve, you know, an improved level of food and bar service, and being in a new space, being in a larger park and having more control over that was an opportunity to improve it. So that's always how I look at it is if you're being forced to change, if you're being forced to adapt to an industry circumstance, how can you turn it into purposeful evolution and address things that you've wanted to address going forward?

SPEAKER_05 28:21

Right. Okay, absolutely. Um what innovations or changes have you introduced that are particularly that that you are particularly proud of?

unknown 28:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:30

Changes are I'm to be honest, I'm most proud of our rebrand project that we've released, yeah, just this past year. Um, that was led by Howard and Lloyd, who are a local firm uh in Saskatoon, um, specifically by Travis Lowe and Cody Schumacher. Um and I'm very, very proud of that. We so Saskel, they're still our free program sponsor. We have a great relationship with SASTEL, but they have been our title sponsor for 28 years.

SPEAKER_05 28:59

It's a long time. It was a long time.

SPEAKER_04 29:01

Exactly. It's like most people like they're like, oh, SASTEL left, and I was like, they were a title sponsor for 28 years, and people go, Oh, okay. You know, it like it it was time, and there are other initiatives that they wanted to put their focus on, very worthwhile initiatives. And so we are transitioning title sponsors. We've got a new title sponsor this year from TD, uh, who we're super excited to welcome. But with that transition, there was, you know, roughly $150,000 worth of infrastructure that all needed to be rebranded. And so it it comes back to what I was saying before about forced change into purposeful evolution. We really decided that it was we don't want to just slap a new logo on there. We want to take this as an opportunity to get introspective, to get some valuable community consultation and understand how the community sees us, how our funders see us, how artists see us, and how we can respond to that in a meaningful way. So we did a full province-wide survey. Our goal was to get 500 responses. We ended up with almost 1400.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Wow. Yes, that was so exciting.

SPEAKER_04 30:13

Yeah, and the average response time was 14 minutes on that survey. Wow. Which, if you think about the last time you spent like you did an online survey. Yeah. You're just like, click, click, get through so I can get the gift card.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Exactly. Exactly. I've been there.

SPEAKER_04 30:28

Yeah. We have all been there. But uh, you know, we had that, we had three different focus groups with different community leaders and and and artists and scene builders to talk about the festival. And from that, that's where the rebrand came from. Nobody who touched this rebrand is from outside of Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_05 30:48

That's great.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Everyone who worked on this project, everyone who is like, all of the signs are being done uh by Russ and Danny at Pelican Signs.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

You know, this is a local sign producer that's been in business for 20 years. We actually, I say Russ and Danny because Russ one day called me and he said he's like, you know, I gotta retire, so my daughter Danny is gonna take it over for you.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 31:10

You know, so it's all it's all locally done. And since we've released that rebrand, the reaction has been so positive. And we gained so much insight not only into the brand that we're putting forward, but into operational elements. I mentioned earlier the tier system that we've introduced. It gave us so much insight into the actual model of the festival, you know, which artists we were booking, you know, and I really feel like the community has responded and and ticket sales are up this year. Um, so I'm extremely proud of that project. It it really felt like people cared a lot about seeing the festival improve and grow and you know, and achieve its goals. And so I I often talk about it being like a community source strategic plan for the festival. And yeah, I'm really, I'm really proud of it. And I feel, to be honest, I feel more confident in my role having that information.

SPEAKER_05 32:04

Wow, that's great. Um, and you I mean you you basically answer the next question. How do you see relevant and uh keep audiences engaged year after year? And then you just kind of plays into that whole idea. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:15

Yeah, and it's like that's you know, I talked about earlier, like the meaning of life and like holy grail questions. That's that is definitely one of them. And having been through this rebrand project, like I've learned so much as a professional and just as an individual from this that I was like, you know, the next time I'm struggling, I'm going back to the research. And if the research is outdated, I'm going back to ask. I'm gonna go back to the well, and the well are the people, the people who support this community. So that's that's you know, been uh a big learning curve.

SPEAKER_05 32:47

Right. Um what role does technology play in hand in enhancing the festival experience? Uh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

It's a it's a big one. I think you know, one of the things that came with our rebrand was an improved website, and that's you know, it can't be overstated. How simplifying your website, simplifying our ticket sales program, those are so so so important. The other thing for us that's important in terms of the tech is it's very easy for the tech to suddenly get out of the community. We live in a land of ticket master.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 33:28

We don't use them. We use um the Broadway Theater is our box office and Beagle Productions, which is another local developer. Beagle Productions? Beagle Productions. Beagle Productions, okay. Yeah, Trent Parahudoff is our contact there. Okay. Um, Beagle Productions, they are a local firm. They're actually like two doors down from the Broadway Theater. And they developed our ticket landing page and they work with us to develop it and continue to, you know, make it better and all of these kinds of things. So, you know, tech is a really easy place for things to, you know, leave the community. And so it's been important for us to keep it there. It's one thing, like, people don't like service fees. I don't blame them. Ticketmaster has ruined this. Ticketmaster has ruined this for everyone in the business. I know. But it's one of those things that, like, when people email me and they're like, I'm frustrated about the service fees, I'll explain to them. It's like, I understand your concern. Let me tell you what the service fee covers. The service fee is split into thirds. The first goes to the Broadway Theater to cover their staffing costs for the people who operate the box office.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

All right.

SPEAKER_04 34:36

The second goes to Beagle Productions, who build the page right here. And the third goes to Square Payment Solutions, which is a Canadian point of sale company.

SPEAKER_05 34:47

Well, you know, that's great. If you're able to break it down and explain it to your your customers that way, a lot of companies don't do that, and they don't break it down that way where that money is going, what's it supporting? And if it's staying within the community, then hey, I have a problem paying that service fee then.

unknown 35:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:00

It's going back to being invested back into the community.

SPEAKER_04 35:02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_05 35:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:03

Exactly. That's that's how we pay for these local people who are helping build these things.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

Right. Um how do you curate a lineup that balances big names with emerging talent and we kind of talked about it earlier. So how is it is that difficult?

SPEAKER_04 35:18

I think the funny thing is that like anyone who who knows me or has had a conversation is hearing that question is probably laughing right now because they know that I hate the term big names.

SPEAKER_05 35:28

Okay. Um big name, how about a well-known? Well known.

SPEAKER_04 35:33

Well, and the thing, so here's the thing about big names.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

The reason I will out.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

Yeah, because so the thing about big names that I don't like is that like when you get like super fixated on big names, number one, that doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. There is no firm def I mean, unless you're talking about Taylor Swift, in which case you know, you know level, yeah. Is a is a whole other level. But there is there is no firm definition of big name. I could name someone that's a big name for me. Like I just said modest mouse, and you were like, who? I guess I gotta look into these guys, right? And that's but that's the way music is. That's the way that's not you not knowing, that's your frame of reference is different than mine.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

That's true, right?

SPEAKER_04 36:17

And so, like, big names mean something different to everyone. It is not, this is not a recognized category. This is not, you know, dairy, grains, meat, veg?

SPEAKER_05 36:29

Now, like you did mention uh one artist uh uh before uh that I I've heard of. Don't listen to her music, but Jewel. So something like that, the name recognition. It's like, oh yeah, Jewel. Okay, I've heard that.

SPEAKER_04 36:41

And name recognition is definitely like that's something that we look for. It's like, do people know who that is? Do people know their songs, like what's being played on radio? But the other thing about big names is that big names doesn't guarantee anything. That's the other thing that's that's you know misunderstood. Okay. You know, like right now, if you're listening to the news or or seeing social media, there's something going on right now that they're calling blue dot fever. Um what is this?

SPEAKER_05 37:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

Yeah, blue dot fever.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

What is that?

SPEAKER_04 37:10

Yeah, so blue dot fever, the name comes from like when you look at a seating map on Ticketmaster and all the blue dots are available seats.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

So blue dot fever is we're seeing artists like Megan Traynor, Post Malone, who have in quick succession been canceling tours due to low sales. Um and it's you know, there's a lot of reasons for it. Some of these reasons being that like the prices are exorbitant. They are it cost me $103 to fill my Ford Edge at the gas station. You know, like people aren't paying these things. But we're we are seeing, you know, lower uptake on on these things. And these are like this post-Malone. Like, you know, like you talk about Taylor Swift. He's on the record with Taylor Swift. He has huge hits, and yet he's canceling tours because of Blue Dot Fever. You know, famously, Prince canceled a show, and I don't know names much bigger than Prince, yeah, canceled a show in Saskatoon due to low ticket sales. So a big name. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 38:11

Oh, interesting. We could have had Prince here.

SPEAKER_04 38:14

We could have a couple of times. It's it's like it's one of those famous things that like fell through and fell through and fell through. But you know, you kind of sit there and you're like, okay, so A, big name is not the same to everyone. B, it doesn't guarantee anything. So it goes back to what I said before is about connection. It's like, who is the audience going to connect with? Who does the audience feel is worth their 80 bucks to and and worth you know putting on your pants and getting in the car and driving down to the festival? Exactly. So it's it's about that connection. In terms of emerging artists, emerging artists I feel is like an embarrassment of riches. There are so many like new artists coming up that I'm like, oh man, I want to program them. Oh man, I want to program them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:01

You still feel the excitement. You get excited about discovering new art, new music.

SPEAKER_04 39:05

Oh, yeah. If I thought it was viable to do a festival entirely of emerging artists, I would do it in a heartbeat. I would do it in a heartbeat. There are so many exciting people. And it's another thing that's like a problem in our industry right now, is that we're seeing the other pattern that's happening, as well as blue dot fever, is we're seeing the middle, like the middle of the music industry drop out. So we're seeing like people super willing to drop $10 cover to see their friends banned at the bar. And you're seeing people willing to save up and save up and save up and drop $5,000 to fly to the ARIS tour, but you're not seeing as many people willing to pony up $80, $90 to go see that mid-level artist. That's just becoming less and less common, and it's something that the the industry is fighting with. It's something that's really difficult in the sense that like we are in an era where the main way to make money off music is touring and live performance because God knows the bottom has fallen out of recording since the advent of streaming. So yeah, it's uh it's a it's a challenging market. So you've got to look for connection. And yeah, but there are so many emerging artists that are just kind of that are are just out there waiting to be discovered.

SPEAKER_05 40:18

Wow. No, that's fascinating, but the ever-changing music industry. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

It's a it's a wild ride.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

It's a wild ride. Um how do you approach risk when uh planning something as complex as a large-scale festival?

SPEAKER_04 40:33

Uh it's the serenity prayer. So like the serenity prayer. Serenity prayer. Well, tell me that. It's the the God grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. All right. Uh it it is it is that. This is an inherently risky business. And there are so many people who I've dealt with who don't understand that at all, who think that it's gonna be a matter of like, I'm gonna put it on this perfect spreadsheet, and exactly what's on the spreadsheet will happen.

SPEAKER_05 41:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:04

And then it rains.

SPEAKER_05 41:05

Yeah. You know, well, I was thinking about that earlier on we were talking about uh the festival and and um changes and adversity and and COVID. I'm thinking, well, something like you you only have seven days to recoup your investment to support the next year, the next year. Weather's a big factor because you it's an outdoor festival.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

It's a huge factor.

SPEAKER_05 41:25

And how and how's that affect you, the weather?

SPEAKER_04 41:27

The weather can affect us, you know, re like it can be really, really trouble troublesome. We get some folks who are totally willing to come out and dance in the rain, and others who are not. So what we'll see is that we'll do things like a free stage day, it'll really, you know, knock out attendance. For ticketed days, it knocks out the walk-up. So the people who, you know, you you get a certain percentage of people who buy tickets because they're like, I love this artist, okay, or I love the festival, and I don't care if it rains, and I will stand out there in my raincoat and I'm gonna have the best time. And then you get people who are like, I'm gonna wait till the day of because if it rains, I'm not into it. So it kills our walk-up. Um, and that's only like we run rain or shine. That's only talking about rain. If we have lightning, if we have wind over 90 kilometers an hour, if we have, you know, the torrential rain, like last year we had one night we had to call it because the field flooded. Um, you know, these kinds of things mean a cancellation and an end of things. We do purchase insurance. Shout out to Hernard at Butler Byers. He's the best.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Shout out. Yeah, shout out.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

But we do we do purchase insurance for these things. We insure to an aggregate.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

But there's there's only so much you can do. Add to that, like, risks of artist cancellation, non-appearance, like things happen. Artists are people.

SPEAKER_05 42:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

That's something that like human factor, yes. Yes, the human human factor. The artists are people. Um, I've had to to rearrange shows. You know, when I worked at Seagaf, if an artist got sick, it was a bummer, but these were year-round venues, so we pick a new day and we move them. That is much less possible in a seven-day festival. So you have to just accept the things that you cannot change, accept that it is an inherently risky business. Make sure that you buy your insurance and everything else that's within your control, you plan that within an inch of its life. Every artist is on a contract, every activation is planned, everything, the um the emergency response plan, the ERP, critical. You make sure everyone's trained and knowing on how that how that works. You got security on site, you got police on site, you got you know, medics on site. Has to be planned within an inch of its life. And then the rest of it, you cross your fingers and you have a good attitude and a sense of humor.

SPEAKER_05 43:50

Well, there's there's so many factors of that that people don't think you're gonna appreciate that goes into running a festival or anything like that. Uh yeah. A big uh event like that. Uh what leadership lessons have you You learn the hard way. Many maybe.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

Not everyone's gonna like you.

SPEAKER_05 44:06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:08

Not everyone's gonna like you, particularly when you're in a position where you have to make decisions, or especially when you're in a position where you're managing major change, which has been kind of the theme of my tenure so far at the festival. Managing major changes. Managing major change. Since I've joined the festival, we've come back from the pandemic. We've moved out of the Besborough. We've changed title sponsors, we've been through this rebrand project.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

It is, you know, it's so actually thinking about this. Yeah, I mean you are the leader for change.

SPEAKER_04 44:42

Uh been the leader for change at the end.

SPEAKER_05 44:43

You brought change with you. Did you did you came to positive change is it was not my intention.

SPEAKER_04 44:50

No. It was not my intention. Kevin Tobin, who was my predecessor, is like I admire Kevin a lot. And Kevin and I, like, we have each other's numbers. We're in contact. We talk a few times a year. Like, I have I have nothing but mad respect for for Kevin. Um, he's actually the AD at Salmon Arm Roots and Blues. So I came into this festival, like loving this festival, thinking that Kevin had done incredible work and like very excited to continue that legacy, and seeing that it was either going to be evolve or die. And so we needed to evolve, and we needed to evolve effectively, and we needed to do a good job of that. And so that's been a lot of it. And sometimes when you do that, people won't like you.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Um, you know, and that you not only have to accept that, you have to like truly accept it. Like you can't just say, like, act tough and say, it's fine. It's hard. You know, when people, you know, either say something to their your face or they talk negatively about you online, that can be really hard, but you just have to accept that. That that's part of leadership is making changes. Not everyone's gonna like those changes. My husband and I, we try and make jokes out of it. Sometimes there was a fellow on Reddit who said, uh, get that girl out of there and bring back Brian Tobin.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

And as I just mentioned, oh yeah, I know. But as I mentioned, my predecessor is Kevin Tobin. Brian Tobin is the former premier of Newfoundland. So anytime anytime I'm dealing with something like this, my husband says, Yeah, sir, we understand your frustration, but leave the good people of Newfoundland out of this. So, you know, you have to have a sense of humor and just understand, not everyone's gonna like you. And I I wish I understand that.

SPEAKER_05 46:35

You do, and it kind of feeds into the next question uh how do you manage stress and avoid burnout during uh peak festival seasons?

SPEAKER_04 46:43

Have you ever seen the uh the David Beckham documentary on Netflix?

SPEAKER_05 46:47

No, I've heard about it, but no, I haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

Okay, so there's a scene and it became a meme, it was really popular where um David or Victoria Beckham is sitting on a couch and the interviewer is asking her questions and asking her about her childhood. And uh she says that she grew up working class and suddenly David Beckham like pops his head around the corner and he says he's like, tell the truth, be honest. And he eventually gets her to admit that like her dad drove a Rolls-Royce and she wasn't really working class.

SPEAKER_05 47:13

So my good use Rolls-Royce, maybe maybe, maybe my husband is a psychiatrist.

SPEAKER_04 47:19

So I like this question when I like I knew you were gonna ask this, and I always I kept thinking I was like, Matt's gonna be like my David Beckham, like around the corner being like, be honest. And like the honest truth is that like that's something that I work on a lot. I struggle with burnout a lot, and I struggle with stress a lot. Um, I deal with it largely by uh I'm a long distance runner. So are you? Yeah, I am, I am. I love to run.

SPEAKER_05 47:48

Okay. You can compete like an organized tournament.

SPEAKER_04 47:53

Yeah, I'm doing the SaaS marathon on the 31st. I I uh yeah, and so like running is is kind of where I do my best thinking. It's where I clear my head. I really try to focus on my family, and sometimes it's about like gratitude in the moment of you know, sometimes when you're in the festival and it's very, very stressful, just kind of being there, it's like, you know, not everyone gets to do this. And this is such a legacy of the community, and like you get to be a part of this, and so like, yeah, you're dealing with a lot of stress, but like just try and think of like the good sides, good sides of this. But yeah, it's a it's a journey. It's it's a journey.

SPEAKER_05 48:28

Absolutely not. No, you know, you're right. Life's a journey, and uh, yeah, I totally agree with that. Uh, what advice would you give emerging leaders in the arts of nonprofit sector?

SPEAKER_04 48:38

Stop trying to impress people.

SPEAKER_05 48:40

Okay, there we go.

SPEAKER_04 48:41

That's the same, it's the same advice as like when I was teaching music that I would give to my students, and it's the same thing like anyone that I've mentored or like any summer students is don't try and impress people. Just try and do good work. Figure out what the goal is and try and and connect with the people who can help you to that goal, admit the things that you don't know. Because if you never admit that you don't know it, you're forced to just kind of figure it out on your own. And sometimes you never exact you never figure it out or you never figure it out properly. Yeah. Like ask, connect with the right people, work for your goal, and when you achieve the goal, the right people will be impressed. Because if all your goal is to impress people, the work falls by the wayside, and you don't necessarily know if you're impressing the right people. Sometimes you're impressing people who are, you know, not necessarily in it for the right reasons or are not going to forward you down the path that you want to go, or are maybe impressed by things that you don't want them to be impressed by. So focus on the work, focus on the goal and and uh and your mandate and your mission and community impact is a big thing. Um, and forget about impressing people.

SPEAKER_05 49:52

Yeah, I mean, uh that whole impressing people could be um a waste of energy that could be you somewhere else.

SPEAKER_04 49:57

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 49:58

If I could tell my 20-year-old self that, like the amount of mental energy that would just be like I mean, we all have insecurities and all the stuff, and and and and business and and running an organization can really bring it out, but you gotta keep it in check.

SPEAKER_04 50:11

Yeah, you want people it's like, oh, I want them to think that I'm good, and I want people to think that like I'm inspiring and I'm a great leader, and it's like the fastest way for them not to think that is for you to try to do that. Like the fastest way for people to respect you or to see you as a colleague worth collaborating with is to do good work.

unknown 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:29

And for people to see like, that's really good work. I would like to work with them on my next project.

SPEAKER_05 50:34

And um yeah, and uh I I'm speaking for myself, but from what I've seen in in business, you know, you you kind of want to do business and work with people that are straight shooters, are honest, and you know where they stand. Yes. On any given topic or yeah, and are focused on the work.

SPEAKER_04 50:49

Like we were having a conversation earlier uh about like optics. And it's like when someone's like, we're gonna do this for the optics, no, we're gonna do this, and side benefit, it has good optics. That's great.

SPEAKER_05 51:04

Yeah, and that's a bother nowadays, the optics of everything, the optics.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

Oh yeah, the optics, the optics, the optics. It's like, why don't we just be good people, seek to create positive impact, whether that's through nonprofit or or corporate business, whatever that is, seek to create good impact. And that good impact that you know improves people's lives and way of being will create good optics by its virtue. Nothing wrong with having a camera there to capture it.

SPEAKER_05 51:32

No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 51:34

You know, create positive impact genuinely and you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_05 51:38

Uh, what is your long-term vision for the for the uh Saskwing Jazz Festival?

SPEAKER_04 51:42

I, you know, leading from our rebrand project, I hope we never forget what we've learned from it. I hope we never lose connection with the community. And I my long-term uh hope for the festival is that it I want it to be there for another 40 years. I want it to just continue to be an absolute symbol uh for the community. I know um, you know, I think it was 2016 or 20 2017 that we Saskatoon was in New York, the New York Times 52 best places to visit in the world. Yeah. And it was there largely on the strength of the Raimi art gallery and the amazing, like the amazing work that they do and their amazing collection. And like I wanna I want the festival to contribute to that kind of a legacy um of like what that makes Saskatoon a place on the map.

SPEAKER_05 52:38

Um I guess kind of you kind of answer that too. Uh how do you see the role of the arts and culture evolving in mid-sized cities like Saskatoon?

SPEAKER_04 52:46

Absolutely. Well, it it goes back to that. Like that the it it was the Ramey that got us on there. Um that that that's what people take note of. That's what people get excited about when they go places. And I talked about earlier that I I run long distance, and I was actually running a marathon in Phoenix, Arizona.

SPEAKER_00 53:04

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 53:05

And you know, you wear a you wear a chip on your number, and so when you hit the preliminary mat before the finish line, your information gets the the computer guards send your information up to the announcer, and so the announcer gets like who you are and and where you're from. And so as I'm about to cross the finish line, the the announcer goes, and here we have Shannon Josdall coming to us here from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, a city that just got added to the New York Times 52 places to visit around the world.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 53:36

I have no idea why, but and of course he added that, and I'm like, because we have an amazing cultural scene. Like anyway, that's an American thing. Yeah, but you know, that's a that's an American thing. But the fact that like that got added to like my introduction, crossing that finish line at that event was like What a Pepe.

SPEAKER_05 54:00

Yeah, like this is great.

SPEAKER_04 54:01

That's that's really cool. And so like that's the power of arts and culture. That like that announcer didn't know me.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

No.

SPEAKER_04 54:07

I am not a like I'm a hardworking runner, but I'm not a runner of note. You're not gonna see me and you're not gonna see me in Canadian running magazine. But he saw where I was from and suddenly had something to say to the crowd because of that cultural impact.

SPEAKER_05 54:24

Well, that's great. Um next question you might want to think about a little bit. I don't know if you have an answer for it, but uh what opportunities do you see for growth and expansion in the next coming years?

SPEAKER_04 54:36

I don't don't necessarily see like growth and expansion so much as targeting. I like I feel like this year, and again, it comes from all the research work that we did, we've really like honed in our offerings. Like I feel like we've got like the right length of festival, we got the right amount of shows, we're like targeting the right demographics. And so, like, as we continue to work on this, I want to see us get more specific and more, you know. I feel like we've got a great balance this year of known artists, but also that little bit of like left of center quirkiness that people want to see from the jazz festival. And so I I want to see the festival not necessarily get bigger, because bigger isn't always better. Right, you're right. That's especially something like it's a it's a trap that you fall into, especially when you're writing like grant reports, that you're like, we did more, more, more. Instead, like we did better, better, better. We got more specific, we got more targeted, we connected better with people. I use that word a lot, connected, but I think that that's just so important. That's great. Um, like that that's really what I think we're looking for.

SPEAKER_05 55:46

Okay, that's great. Well, we've come to the uh the final part of the uh podcast. Almost done. Okay, couple of uh rapid fire questions, you just answer whatever comes to your mind. Uh what's one artist, past or present, that you would like to have or be able to meet?

SPEAKER_04 56:02

I would love to spend more time with Melissa Etheridge.

SPEAKER_05 56:05

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04 56:06

Melissa Yeah, she played the the festival in 2024, and uh her team was just incredible to work with.

SPEAKER_05 56:15

And I like her, she's a great artist.

SPEAKER_04 56:17

Oh, she's a great artist. Um she played in 2024, her team was absolutely incredible, but because of a rainstorm we had, we she was like in and out, you know, really, really quick. And so we didn't get a lot of time to meet her. And when you're dealing with a team that is so professional and so wonderful and so sharp, you're just like, I bet you the artist is like that too. And so like a reflection of that artist.

SPEAKER_05 56:41

Yeah, it's kind of like bad leadership versus good leadership, but it no it affects everybody at the bottom, you know.

SPEAKER_04 56:46

Exactly. And like you can kind of get like a hint of the artist by the team around them, and her team was so just incredible from start to finish. So I I imagine that I imagine she's probably the same.

SPEAKER_05 56:57

Well, you I think you might have answered the next question. Uh favorite festival memory.

SPEAKER_04 57:02

Favorite festival memory um is actually Megan Nash and Lucinda Williams. Okay. So Megan Nash is a local artist, she's incredible. If you don't know Megan Nash, you gotta check her out. So Megan Nash, um, this was in 2022, my very first festival. Okay. And Megan used to play the Creative City Center on the on the 12 by 12 stage for 50 people when I was running it as the general manager. And that was in 2012. And here we were in 2022, 10 years later, and I had booked Lucinda Williams. And I uh I called Megan up and I offered her the direct support slot because there was something about Megan that I was like, it's gotta be Megan. That's the only artist that I want to open. And she's like, You're kidding, and I was like, I'm not. And she's like, I played Lucinda Williams records in my car or CDs in my car till they wore out. And so then this day came, and there's somebody who's developed her career at the same time. I've developed my career, and we're standing there, and uh Megan's finished an incredible set, and Lucinda's on stage, and she looks at me and she's like, You booked a legend. And I look at her and I'm like, you just opened for a legend. And it was just this very cool moment of being with someone who had developed their career at the same time and being like, Wow, look at like remember that 12 by 12 stage and like look at where we are right now. Like, this is really cool.

SPEAKER_05 58:26

That is that's really nice.

SPEAKER_04 58:27

It's really cool, and we got to do it in Saskatchewan. You know what's cool? At home.

SPEAKER_05 58:31

It's always cool you would do in a situation or position where you could affect change for someone else and and do something nice for someone else and help them up in their career or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Oh, absolutely. And like, like I say, if you haven't heard Megan Nash, you gotta hear Megan Nash. She is just like we should be so proud that she came from this province.

SPEAKER_05 58:49

Wow, okay. You you you you're gonna have to provide provide me a little list of people to listen to and I'll check out the these artists you're gonna do. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Okay, next one. Um one word you'd use to describe the Sastoon Jazz Festival. One word.

SPEAKER_04 59:02

Uh the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival?

SPEAKER_05 59:04

Oh, the Saskatchewan Jazz Festival, sorry.

SPEAKER_04 59:07

Exciting.

SPEAKER_05 59:08

Exciting. I can see. Yeah. Yeah. Uh what does success look like to you right now?

SPEAKER_04 59:16

Uh community connection and impact. That's I I keep I keep saying that about it because at the end of the day, that begets everything else. That begets ticket sales, that begets uh people registering in our jazz intensive and signing up for our care home outreach, that begets people signing up and volunteering. If we are connecting with people and we're impacting the community, the rest of it comes with it. It's very if if an event or an organization isn't connecting with you or impacting your life, it's very easy to ignore it. But if we are making that connection, you're gonna get involved.

SPEAKER_05 59:56

Okay, great. Great answer. Couldn't do better myself. Well, thank you, Shannon, for coming down. Yeah, thank you for having me. And uh looking forward to talking to you again.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:07

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:08

Okay Rooted Here, Business and Leadership Podcast.