Staff
“Tour de Fort” will be around for another year.
“There will be a 19th season,” board president Ken Avis said this morning.
The fate of the 2011-12 season hinged on passport and ticket sales for the current season.
As of last week’s initial deadline, organizers still had not sold enough passports to make a future season viable.
But they opted to hold off on a decision until the concert series’ first show this past Saturday night, when Canadian Broadway singer Louise Pitre took to the Townshend Theatre stage, in hopes of generating more sales.
“We’re squeaking by,” Avis said.
“We still, of course, have not sold enough passports, but we’ve got a really good season set up for this year and we want to keep moving forward,” he added, stressing that it was next year’s season, not the current one, that was on shaky ground.
“It was pins and needles, and we still technically haven’t sold enough,” Avis admitted.
“But we know that there will be some more sales that will happen,” he remarked. “And we just don’t want to drop it now and find out six months from now that we did have enough money [for another season].”
Depending on the financials at the end of this season, Avis said the next one may not feature as many shows.
He encouraged residents to show their support by coming out to see this season’s lineup of talented musicians—whether through purchasing a passport, a “Pick 3” option, or individual tickets for the remaining shows.
Tickets are available at Shopper’s Drug Mart, the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre, at the door, or by visiting the “Tour de Fort” website at www.tourdefort.com
The next “Tour de Fort” performance, slated for Oct. 15, will feature the a capella group “Cantabile.”
Rounding out the season lineup are acoustic pop duo “Dala,” percussion quartet “TorQ,” pop artist “Emma-Lee,” and singer Andrew Craig.
