Westben celebrates 25 years making music in a natural setting
Wide variety of shows offered year-round on several stages and online
Donna Bennett grew up in Campbellford in a musical family and knew she wanted to be an opera singer and perform on a big stage. She didn’t realize that she’d wind up building it herself.
Now, at 64 she finds herself co-founder of that stage with Brian Finley and together they are celebrating 25 years as entertainment entrepreneurs who have worked with the area’s vibrant music scene to make Westben Centre for Connection and Creativity through Music, its official name, an artistic and financial success.
At a time when many, perhaps most, live music and theatre venues across the country are struggling and cutting shows as they endure a post-Covid downturn, Westben continues to thrive.
In the mid-1990s, Bennett and Finley, who is a composer and pianist, were building their careers in England and Europe, when she became pregnant and decided to return home to raise a family, rather than accept a opera role in Vienna.
That return home is a bit ironic.
“I spent all my teenage years in that farmhouse, thinking: ‘Oh my God get me out of here. Get me out of here,’ because I trained to be an opera singer,” she says. “But it's been such a dream to live in Campbellford where I grew up and have a career and have music.”
The success of staging Jesus Christ Superstar and The Sound of Music in 1997 and 1998 as community events, got them thinking about a venue they had played near Seattle that featured an outdoor experience and cabins for the performers. They decided to create something similar on her family’s farm.
By 2000, they had built the Barn and started a four-week classical music festival and were learning about marketing and how to get government grants.
In an interview at Westben’s in the West School, which it purchased in 2021, Bennett says the financial support from the federal government kept the festival going when it was forced to cancel most of its programming in 2020.
“We would be gone if it wasn't for the government and our members. A lot of people donated tickets back and some people donated more money, so that sustained us,” she says.
Westben is a not-for-profit charitable organization and Bennett and Finley are employees.
“We’re not back to 2019, but we hope we will be this year,” she says. “In 2023, we didn't quite get the attendance we were hoping for, but we were pretty close and way better than 2022. So far, ticket sales are ahead of last year.”
Ticket sales usually generate about 40 per cent of total revenue, she says.
For the first 15 years or so, the festival usually came close to breaking even, but was in the red a bit each year, Bennett says. But from 2017 to 2019 it was stronger financially, as it became better known and scheduled a wider variety of music from jazz to country.
“The main thing is good music, it doesn't matter what genre, just well done,” she says. “Music in nature with no pretensions. The artists are expected to talk to the audience, to make the audience feel part of the experience.”
The summer schedule kicks off with The Selfish Giant for six performances starting June 14. It’s a large-scale original musical written by Finley and Ken Tizzard, based on an Oscar Wilde short story.
There will be a 25th anniversary celebration on June 30 and then the summer concerts run from July 4 to August 4. The lineup includes Steve Page, Holly Cole, Sarah Slean, Colin Mochrie & Deb McGrath, and Seyblu, a homegrown jazz singer better known here as Chelsey Bennett.
Finley books all the acts, a financial and scheduling juggling act that starts in September and gets wrapped up by December. Bennett notes that Westben tries to keep ticket prices affordable so it can’t meet the costs of some performers.
“We had William Prince in 2022 but his career has taken off and his price has tripled this year,” she says.
Bennett says about 80 per cent of the audience lives within an hour’s drive but a growing number want to stay overnight and see more than one performance, something Westben encourages.
That’s why she hopes the municipality does not restrict Airbnbs since they offer accommodation to many people. It is currently drafting a bylaw and the latest suggestion from staff would no allow standalone cottage or home rentals, except in special circumstances.
“It's a big deal because we want people to stay for the weekend, because we have different shows every day, but there's no place to stay. If people stay over, they spend way more money than if it is just a day trip.”
One important feature of Westben is its cadre of hardworking volunteers. “We have 150 volunteers, it takes 15 to 25 volunteers per concert with parking and welcoming and ticket taking, concession, bar, all kinds of stuff,” Bennett says.
She’s especially proud of Westben’s work with children, during the March break, in schools during the year, and through its choirs that take singers from 5 to 21. She notes that many schools have been forced to cut their music programs.