Hello, friends.
Forgive this lengthy note and the possible whiff of desperation it may contain.
We are about to mark our one-year anniversary at theYYSCENE and we’re entering a pretty important stretch for the site. It’s been a year of ups and downs trying to launch and establish something that we believe the city needs. We’ve made some mistakes, learned a great deal, and we’re still growing and hoping to get better.
We appreciate everyone who has volunteered their time and talents so far, those amazing arts organizations we’ve partnered with over the past 12 months as sponsors (Calgary Folk Music Festival, Calgary International Film Festival, the CPO and the Calgary Underground Film Festival, to name a few), those incredible people who’ve actually spent money on advertising (Wild Rose Brewery, Lukes Drug Mart, the National Music Centre, the folk fest), those who’ve sent us events listings or press releases, and especially those people who’ve clicked on, shared or “liked” our posts.
It’s heartening to know that people believe in what we’re doing.
But. Fact of the matter is the support that we’d hoped for — consistent contributions from writers, and advertising from groups and businesses — hasn’t quite materialized yet. And without either of those things, it’s unlikely that we can continue, perhaps suffering the same fate as other outlets such as Fast Forward, which this city sorely misses, genuinely needed.
We get it, there’s not always enough time in the day to commit to something purely based on goodwill and the possibility of something down the road, and many in the city are just getting back on their financial feet after a lengthy rough patch or are still suffering, and there are also likely people still waiting for us to prove ourselves.
So, yes, we understand, and this is less a sob story than it is a state of the union address and a gentle plea on a number of fronts.
If you are interested in and capable of writing, we would be more than honoured to host you and your talents on the site. Music, film, theatre, visual arts, TV, food, booze, fashion, shopping, sports, health, lifestyle or any other topic that you think makes sense for theYYSCENE, we’d love to feature your work and add you to our stable of volunteer — for now — writers. Please DM us on our Facebook page or email Mike Bell at mike@theyyscene.ca or Kari Watson at kari@theyyscene.ca.
Also, if you or any business you know are looking to support something that’s 100 per cent local — that itself supports the Calgary and provincial arts scene and its organizations — and have the financial means to do so, we would love to hear from you, send you a rate card. Again, please feel free to connect with us in the aforementioned ways or by emailing info@theyyscene.ca.
And finally, if none of those things work for you, we would be happy just to have you keep reading and sharing our work, spreading the word of what it is we’re trying to do.
Thanks in advance for supporting us in any way you can, and here’s to a bigger and better year number two.
