CWM 2016: Review and Live Music Awards winners
Over 2,900 delegates and 120,000 music fans from 30 countries attended the latest Canadian Music Week (CMW), which wrapped its 34th edition on Sunday.
This festival component of this year’s event featured 833 artists performing in over 40 venues across Toronto, while a total of 499 guests spoke at the conference, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. CMW 2016 also saw the debuts of both the Music Cities Summit and the Live Music Industry Awards, the latter of which recognised the achievements of music festivals, live music venues, artist agencies and music programmes, both Canadian and international, and included a special ‘Legends of Live’ award, presented to Toronto country-rock band Blue Rodeo.
This year’s country focus was on the United Kingdom (with a “special focus” on the Republic of Ireland), with British artists participating including Holly Macve, Nina, Throwing Shade and Tusk. France will be the focus country in 2017.
Other high-profile performers included Tori Kelly, Skepta, Eagles of Death Metal, Bob Mould and Collective Soul.
Elsewhere, the International Festival Network (IFN) gave attendees the chance to meet face to face with some of the world’s leading festival coordinators, promoters and talent buyers. More than 40 festival representatives from across the globe travelled to he IFN, including Glastonbury and The Great Escape co-founder and creative director Martin Elbourne, Folk Alliance International executive director Aengus Finnan and Festival International de Jazz de Montreal’s Maurin Auxemery.
A full list of Live Music Industry Awards winners is below:
International festival of the year
Glastonbury Festival
New kid on the block (best new festival)
Wayhome Music and Arts Festival (Oro Medonte, Ontario)
Family programme of the year
Winnipeg Folk Festival (Winnipeg)
Small festival of the year (6,000 and under)
Interstellar Rodeo (Alberta and Manitoba)
Medium festival of the year (6,001–15,000)
Field Trip Music and Arts Festival (Toronto)
Major festival of the year
Osheaga Music and Arts Festival (Quebec)
Not-for-profit festival of the year
Festival d’été de Québec (Quebec)
Green operations festival of the year
Hillside Festival (Guelph, Ontario)
Best teamwork in an arena
Air Canada Centre (Toronto)
Best teamwork in a soft-seat theatre/performing arts centre
Massey Hall (Toronto)
Best teamwork in a major club (1,000+ capacity)
Commodore Ballroom (Vancouver)
Best teamwork in a medium club (300–999 capacity)
Mod Club (Toronto)
Best teamwork in a small club (under 300 capacity)
The Drake Underground (Toronto)
Agent of the year (Canada)
Rob Zifarelli, United Talent Agency
Manager of the year
Joel Carriere, Bedlam Music Management
Road warrior of the year (best tour manager)
Louisa Key (The Tragically Hip and more)
Production manager of the year (festival/concert)
Vanessa Arscott (Plan V/Wayhome and more)
Canadian independent regional promoter of the year
Collective Concerts (Toronto)
Canadian festival buyer of the year
Erik Hoffman, Live Nation (Vancouver)
AV production company of the year
Christie Lites
Brand/music programme of the year
Red Bull Sound Select
Breakthrough touring artist of the year
Alessia Cara
Music city of the year (international)
Austin, Texas
Music city of the year (Canadian)
Montreal
Legends of Live
Blue Rodeo
International agent of the year
Neil Warnock, United Talent Agency
Licensed to Play award
Harbourfront Centre