In September 2016, Flin Flon’s Tim Spencer wrote a letter to Rochelle Squires, Manitoba’s minister of sport, culture and heritage, advocating for steady or increased funding for the Home Routes concert program. This is a condensed version of his letter:
Dear Minister Squires,
My wife, Elly, and I, along with our co-hosts Ann Ross and Doug McGregor, have been hosting Home Routes concerts in Flin Flon for the past eight years. It’s been a positive and rewarding experience. The warm and enthusiastic Flin Flon audience has welcomed musicians from almost every province as well as from several US states and even Brazil.
The Home Routes music menu has been rich, immensely diverse and always of excellent quality. Our audience often says that without Home Routes, it’s unlikely that any of these artists would have performed in Flin Flon.
In my experience, Home Routes has been a wonderful gift to small communities like Flin Flon. I want to share my thoughts and observations on why it works so well and why it’s been so important in our community:
• It’s really about small towns! In Manitoba there are Home Routes stops in 24 communities, but only three of those stops are in the major cities of Winnipeg and Brandon, with the other 21 being in rural and northern centres. Home Routes provides great entertainment to small communities that often don’t get much.
• Home Routes manages the risk for artists as well as small communities. The hosts are passionate about music, so they work hard to get a good audience out, but they don’t have to guarantee any minimum in the event of a bad night. The artists are happy because they get 12 shows on a two-week tour, so any low-attendance nights are usually balanced by some big nights, as well as the free room and board.
• The Home Routes office looks after all of the logistics so local hosts can focus on getting an audience out and artists can just show up
and play.
• Small towns and local employers are always looking for ways to attract new people and, hopefully, getting them stay. A vibrant arts scene, like Flin Flon’s, is a great asset and Home Routes concerts, in particular, are the perfect event to invite newcomers to.
• Eight years of Home Routes has expanded the audience for live music in Flin Flon! Live music is usually sold out and most of it features local performers.
• Home Routes visits have led to other connections with the community. Visiting artists have done extra performances and workshops in our schools and several have returned to Flin Flon for other events.
• Independent musicians are passionate artists but also hardworking entrepreneurs! They are really running small businesses. Home Routes provides infrastructure to support them and it creates a nationwide network of experienced performance contacts that can help fill gaps in future tour schedules.
• Home Routes is a Manitoba idea and is run out of a small office in Winnipeg. This year of the 60-plus acts on tour with Home Routes, 18 of them are from Manitoba. Home Routes plays a significant role in developing young Canadian performers.
• Home Routes is incredibly efficient! With volunteers in 115 communities across Canada hosting over 650 concerts by 60-plus artists every year, frequent Home Routes attendee Mark Kolt told me he’s never heard of any arts-related project that delivers a bigger bang for the buck.
In closing, I just want to say that we think Home Routes is awesome and it has made a big contribution to life in Flin Flon and smaller communities throughout Manitoba. I encourage you to at least maintain your current level of funding for the organization and to seriously consider increasing it.
