Registration of arts festivals

Policy statement

Reference number
CPS-010

Effective date
May 29, 1996

Purpose

This policy statement outlines the Directorate's policy on the registration of applicant organizations that operate arts festivals.

Statement

The courts have recognized as charitable organizations that operate arts festivals.

Implementation

1. This policy applies to applicant organizations and registered charities that operate arts festivals. Arts festivals are held only once, locally and periodically, usually occurring at the same time every year and lasting over the course of one or several days, or a week or more.

2. To qualify for registration as a charity, an organization must operate arts festivals that demonstrate a certain high standard of quality, present in both the art form ^{Footnote 1} and the performers, for example, the promotion of fine arts such as classical ballet, classical music, Shakespearean plays. Art is defined in a number of very broad ways that include human activity that is the product of cunning, imitative skills that appeal to the imagination, for example, painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, poetry, music, drama, dancing, workmanship, as opposed to the work of nature and skilful execution as an object in itself.

3. An organization must meet the professional standards required to raise the public's artistic taste, knowledge, and appreciation of art. ^{Footnote 2}

4. An organization must provide presentations by qualified artists of a variety of art based on materials, techniques and instrumentation, providing it is esoteric but of high standard, which the public would not otherwise be exposed to. ^{Footnote 3}

5. Arts festivals that are live performance art essentially include human action presented before a live audience and focus primarily on musicals, either instrumental or vocal music, for example, dancing and theatre, as well as dramatic performances on stage with actors and the spoken word. ^{Footnote 4}

6. Entertainment or non-charitable events are acceptable as incidental and ancillary by-products of an arts festival that is a registered charity.

7. Arts festivals do not apply to any other type of festivals. Sports festivals, ethnic or traditional celebrations are not considered charitable, for example, the Mardi Gras, the Carribana, the Carnaval de Québec, or Saint Patrick's Day Parades, as well as historical pageants, stampedes, rodeos, touring events, community or seasonal celebrations such as Winterlude, fireworks competitions, festivals that promote a certain industry or that have a religious origin.

8. Not all festivals are charitable. The popular designation of "festival" is used not only in the realm of art but in many other fields, for example, boat races, seafood or wine, agriculture or horticulture, local history or colour, or performances by named artists rather than a particular art form. ^{Footnote 5}

9. Not all arts festivals are charitable, ^{Footnote 6} for example, sports based on a subjective appreciation of an athlete's skills, movement with rhythmical steps or gestures, usually set to music, such as synchronized swimming, floor gymnastics, figure skating, freestyle skiing, equestrian shows.

10. Arts festivals do not apply to artistic competitions, for example, high-school marching band competitions and music competitions that enable musicians of a certain age and ability to compete against each other for a prize.

11. Events that are essentially celebratory are not charitable, for example, carnivals. They are usually evidenced by:

a focus on dancing, drinking, food, and a party atmosphere
the venue is deliberately scheduled to coincide and interact with a traditional celebration
the publicity is directed at drawing money into the local economy
an emphasis is placed on entertainment and having a good time in the publicity
the presence of rides, amusements, gambling, fireworks, parades, and other diversions

12. Fringe festivals are different from the events covered in the present policy. Fringe festivals are often advertised as festivals and their main purpose is to enable any artist, regardless of calibre or quality, to perform and to gain experience and exposure. These festivals could be registered but only by analogy, for example, with purposes to promote craftsmanship. ^{Footnote 7}

Footnotes

Footnote 1

Art "form" identifies varieties of art, based on materials, techniques, instrumentation (for example, rock and roll band vs. chamber orchestra), structure (for example, sonnet vs. prose). To paraphrase the Harvard Dictionary of Music, in the most general sense, form includes all the elements and relationships that distinguish one type of art from another, or that distinguish art from the mundane. In music for instance, one can think of all the basic elements: pitch, rhythm, meter, melody, harmony, tonality, texture, structure, instrumentation. All these contribute to musical coherence, and may be designated as components of form. The same can be said for other artistic mediums.

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Footnote 2

While this implies some evidence as to the merits of a particular artistic pursuit, there is no need to resort to expert evidence in cases that are clearly inside or outside the bounds of what has already been decided by the courts.

J. Vaisey in Re Shaw's Will Trusts, (1952) 1 Ch. 163, commenting on In re Hummeltenberg, at pp. 169-70

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Footnote 3

For example, gamelan music is completely foreign to Canadian audiences although it is well known to people in Southeast Asia. The artistic significance to a Canadian audience is that a gamelan orchestra uses two scales (pentatonic and heptatonic), which are not employed in Western music, and as a medium, it has influenced a number of classical composers, notably Debussy, Ravel, Reich and the Canadian Colin McPhee. It has a classical repertory of its own, it uses instruments which are completely foreign to Canadian listeners, and its flexibility makes it a medium of choice to train music students everywhere, in ensemble playing.

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Footnote 4

Burlesque, musical comedies, and other similar performances are excluded, as well as ballroom dancing, folk dancing and the more popular forms of art such as salsa and country and western.

Live performances cover a wide spectrum in terms of quality and type of performance art, for example, buskers, puppets, clowns, popular music, folk dancing, regardless of whether such art is deemed to be fine art. Fluctuations in terms of quality and types of performances are accepted in this case, by analogy with concert halls and other similar facilities that are registered as charities. The latter are charitable because they promote the arts, although they do not cover the span of a year, consistently promote quality art but may offer a wide variety of artistic venues or events, some of which would be beyond the pale of aesthetic art.

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Footnote 5

Although there is a distinction between performances by named artists and a Festival of Music honouring the 400th anniversary of the birth of J.S. Bach.

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Footnote 6

Royal Choral Society v. Commissioners of Inland Revenue, (1943) 25 T.C. 263

Hubert Picarda, The Law and Practice Relating to Charities, London, Butterworths, 2^nd ed., 1995, at pp. 45-8, ibid., n. 19, p. 46

Re Levien, Lloyd's Bank v. Worshipful Company of Musicians, (1955) 3 Ch. D. 35, at p. 40

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Footnote 7

Re Pinion, (1965) 1 Ch. 85

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Date modified:: 2017-09-20

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