Advertisement

End of Acadian baroque music festival imminent

Funding cuts have pushed a music festival in northern New Brunswick to the verge of cancellation.

Organizers of the Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival say they can't raise enough money for another season.

The festival has been drawing crowds to the Acadian Peninsula for almost 40 years.

"We can't finance the festival anymore, so the position of the board at this point in time in 2013 is we can't do anything. As it is we have no money left," said Jean Rene Noel, the head of the festival's board.

He said they've just finished paying last year's debts.

Mathieu Lussier quit as artistic director last week.

He said he was running out of ideas on how to keep the festival going after five years of constant cutbacks.

"We would again have to cut 35 per cent of the small budget we were working with and for me there was just no way to do that."

Both Noel and Lussier said there are no hard feelings.

They said the festival attracts more than 1,000 people to the small community on Lamèque Island for four days every summer.