Country is coming over and staying a while. The Canadian Country Music Association announced early Thursday morning their annual CCMA award show and Country Music Week will be held in Edmonton in both 2013 and 2014. At a City Hall media conference, CCMA executive director Don Green noted the city was chosen because of the way we handled the intertwined events last September. “We had record attendance at the country music awards,” he said. “Record high sponsorships. Record TV audience. Record number of volunteers. One of the most successful events we’ve ever had.
“You love your music here.”
The province is kicking in $400,000 to bolster the events, with an additional $200,000 coming from the city. Lindsay Blackett, minister of culture and community spirit, said the money nicely fits his portfolio. “Our cultural policy states we have to create greater access. We have to create greater capacity in our communities. Foster excellence, which is exactly what the CCMA awards are. And support our cultural industries — songwriting and book publishing are all part of that, along with traditional arts and culture.
“It’s really important not just to have the platitude to say ”˜build capacity,’ you actually have to do it. You’ve got to spend some money to do it, or else you’re just a vacuous shell like so many other places. The rate of return we get on these investments is huge. Look at us. How are you going to get that kind of exposure for Edmonton any time other than Grey Cup?”
Leading the charge to magnetize the CCMAs to Edmonton has been CFCW radio personality Jackie Rae Greening, co-chair of the local bid committee and now event co-chair with Bob Steadward. Greening says given its country music fan base, Edmonton is a natural to double host.
“We have two huge country radio stations that are really different, so that helps. This area’s always been great for ticket and concert sales. It’s always been one of the hottest markets for country.”
Greening smiles at the suggestion we simply host the event every year, as Nashville does its Country Music Awards, given our demographic weight.
“If we find the money. You never can say never, we should because it’s so successful when it comes here.”
“It’s been talked about,” CCMA’s Green admitted, “whether we should have a permanent place. Canada’s unique, and we don’t have that Nashville centre. Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa have big country followings. It’d be hard to pick one location. Doing two consecutive years, we’re starting to look at that approach.”
“Actually, we tried for three,” Blackett laughed under his big Stetson. “I agree we should do it more often.”
The last time a city hosted more than one CCMA in a row was 2001 through 2003 in Calgary. The event will be held in Hamilton this September and Saskatoon in 2012.
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