Montral en fte cancels New Year's festivities in the Old Port

It's going to be quiet in the Old Port this December:the Montral en fte festival as well asits annual New Year's event have been cancelled.

In a news release, the organizers said the 2022 festivities proved to be "an insoluble puzzle," saying the event needs to reconsider its financing for the future.

"Galloping inflation, labor shortages and public underfunding mean that the organization of the 10th edition is impossible," concluded the statement.

The Montral en fte event also known as Merry Montreal has been free for attendees since its founding in 2013. It held a virtual version in 2020 and was cut short by the public health measures announced in December 2021, at the height of the Omicron wave.

Martin Durocher, the co-founder and vice-chairman of the board for the event, said they received a financial analysis in the fall that suggested the event couldn't take place.

"We realized that either we were going to operate at a loss, or we weren't going to go ahead," he said. "We're a non-profit run by volunteers. We're not a big group like Evenko that can absorb [the losses] for a big event."

The sudden cancellation of last year's edition left a hole in the organization's budget, one that it hoped to address with partners this year. But the response was not what they had wanted, Durocher said, especially from the city of Montreal.

"The city has supported us from the very beginning, but at the moment we don't feel like a priority to the administration," he said.

Ericka Alneus, the city councillor responsible for culture on Montreal's executive committee, said they met with Montral en fte several times in 2022 to try and find a solution.

"We also discussed the possibility to sponsor a part of the event, that would be free, if they wanted to have a paying section," Alenus said.

She said that how events are run is ultimately at the discretion of the organizers.

"It's something we really don't want to do," Durocher said. "It would mean charging [the public] for the evening of Dec. 31."

Durocher said the budget for the event in 2019 was about $1 million, but doubled in the years since. He said they would need about $2 million to put on this year's edition.