After four years, organizers pull the plug By JOHN LAW, NIAGARA FALLS REVIEW Posted 23 hours ago
NIAGARA - Free to a good owner: The Niagara Music Awards.
After four years of bringing acclaim and recognition to the local music scene, organizers Morgan Whelan and Jack Mitchell say the awards will go on without them next year. Now, it's just a matter of finding someone willing to do it.
"I think that somebody'll pick it up," says Whelan. "But you need to be committed because there's so many different aspects to it."
Whelan and Mitchell, co-owners of the Port Colborne company Capital M Productions, began the awards in 2008. The first two shows were held in Niagara Falls before moving to Welland last year and Thorold this year. Each show got bigger, with June's event at the Frank Doherty Arena a sell-out.
But with Whelan and Mitchell also running their Port Colborne music school The Music Depot, the workload was becoming too much. By keeping things nonprofit (re: no staff), the duo were working 80 hours per week in the months leading up to the event.
"We just have so much going on right now," she says. "We can't afford the time this year."
As early as last year, she knew the 2011 show would likely be the last. Announcing her decision via Facebook last week was difficult.
"We had to make a call," she says. "We run two businesses, and we're self-employed people. It was always our company that financed the Music Awards. We feel like we started something, and I've gotten a lot of e-mails and phone calls about people wanting to do it on their own."
"It's an emotional thing because it becomes your life, becomes your baby. To let it go is really hard."
About 750 people attended this year's show, which handed out 27 awards and featured 16 performances. The event became a signature night for Niagara's music scene, uniting everyone from thrash metal bands to polka king Walter Ostanek.
St. Catharines rapper Mat Femapco won three straight awards for Hip Hop Artist of the year (tying with The KAC Himself this year), and says the show played a crucial role in helping local talent book gigs. He was hired for the Niagara Food Festival this year as a direct result of the Niagara Music Awards.
"It's a sad thing because it's the end of an era," he says. "It's one thing to win an award, but the way that they go about doing it – you really feel recognized."
"The networking aspect really helped. It's not every day you have different artists from different categories in the same area having a good time."
But Femapco isn't surprised Mitchell and Whelan are pulling the plug.
"The time and effort they put into it, it's got to counteract with your home life. The hours they said they put into it are crazy … at some point, it's hard to put out all this time when you're not making any money doing it."
The show attracted decent sponsors its first year, but it became harder after the recession of 2009 took hold. This year's show cost about $40,000 to produce, and while it broke even, the effort required to pull it off was like a full-time job. In addition to the show itself were judging events, launch parties and fundraising concerts.
If someone takes over, Whelan insists it become their show – she will not share her production notes.
"That's not an option. I want someone to build it their own way."
Femapco hopes to see the show return in some form, though Whelan and Mitchell set the bar high.
"It's going to take some serious effort by whoever does it. They're going to have to be extremely motivated because they have a tough act to follow."
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