Festival Submissions Open: BreakOut West 2024
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
BreakOut West features a multi-genre, multi-venue showcase festival that presents more than 50 established and emerging artists from across Western Canada. This year’s event takes place September 25 – 29, 2024 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
SHOWCASE SUBMISSION DEADLINES
Submission deadline: January 30, 2024 at midnight CT
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS
All performing festival artists must be residents of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and/or Nunavut, for at least six months between March 30, 2023 and January 28, 2024. The mandate of the Western Canadian Music Alliance is to support artists and companies who reside in Western Canada a majority of the time and as such contribute to healthy and thriving music communities in the region. In the case of groups, 50% of the members must meet the residency requirement.
MUSICAL GENRE
The Western Canadian Music Alliance is an inclusive organization and BreakOut West is open to submissions from all artists irrespective of genre. Festival selections are made by jury on the basis of qualification and fit for the festival, and thus not every genre will be represented at the festival at any given year.
FESTIVAL ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA
BreakOut West is a music industry showcase, designed to match export-ready artists based in Western Canada with industry professionals at their level. Artists are juried primarily on the following criteria:
- Submission materials: quality of music, performance video, bio, and other artist materials.
- Conference goals: specificity, detail, attainability, and relevance to BreakOut West conference.
- Artist’s history: detail, breadth of experience, growth trajectory and market development.
WCMA recommends that submitting artists meet at least two, but ideally all four of FACTOR’s criteria for export readiness. BreakOut West is a juried showcase festival that takes many details into consideration. These may include; diversity of genre, language, gender and cultural identity. The festival also strives to represent all Wesern Canadian Music Alliance geographic regions. Gender-non-conforming artists, Indigenous artists, and artists of colour are strongly encouraged to apply.
FESTIVAL SHOWCASE ARTIST COMPENSATION
Each selected artist at BreakOut West receives the following benefits as part of their performance:
- Two performance opportunities at the BreakOut West festival. Performance times and venues are may vary and are at the discretion of WCMA.
- One delegate package (valued at over $250) per performing member of your ensemble. This package includes a festival wristband which grants access to all showcases, and a delegate pass to take part in the BreakOut West industry conference including all workshops, panels, networking receptions, one-on-one meetings and more.
- All showcasing artists will be able to access early and exclusive sign up for one-on-one meetings with industry mentors, ahead of general access.
- Each selected artist will be given honorarium for participation. One honorarium is provided per artist, not per performing member.
- As a showcase at a recognized music industry conference, selected showcasing artists may be eligible to apply for support through FACTOR, and their provincial showcase funding program for support of showcase expenses. This may include travel, accommodations, payment to artists, per diems, marketing expenses, etc. Please contact your provincial music industry association for more detail.
- Access to hotel room discounts at participating hotels
- Marketing tools to promote showcases including electronic show posters, social media promotions and use of logos and branding upon request.
