In this week’s committee of the whole meeting, City Councillor Matt Dell has brought forth a motion to try to bring BreakOut West and the Western Canadian Music Awards to Victoria in 2026.
BreakOut West is a Canadian music festival and conference, which happens to be the largest music industry event in western Canada.
The festival is organized by the Western Canadian Music Alliance, which is composed of music associations from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.
This three-day festival is focused on artist/music discovery, and includes an intensive business development conference for musicians to help them build their careers.
If Victoria were to be selected as the site for the BreakOut West 2026, over 50 bands and artists of all genres would flock to the city to play showcases across the city at numerous venues.
Previous renditions of the festival have even included artists from Iceland, Sweden, Wales, Hong Kong, Ireland and more.
Every artist selected to play a showcase at the festival performs twice with the chance to play multiple venues, which creates a vibrant and dynamic experience for Victoria music lovers, while also providing local venues a chance to bring in renowned talent.
The conference portion of the festival provides industry-leading programming on artist development, marketing, export initiatives, business strategies, production. It also includes keynote speakers, networking receptions and around 1,000 one-on-one meetings between artists and industry.
Additionally, a big part of BreakOut West is the Western Canadian Music Awards.
The awards ceremony exists parallel to the East Coast Music Awards, and both lead winning bands and nominees towards heightened recognition, while putting them on track to be recognized by the Juno Awards in the future.
Last time BreakOut West was hosted in BC, it took place in Kelowna in 2023, where over 600 music industry delegates and artists provided entertainment for the city, as well as economic advantages.
According to Dell’s motion, when Kelowna hosted BreakOut West, the benefits of bringing the festival to the city were as follows:
- $1.4 million of initial expenditures
- $658,576 of visitor spending
- $1.97 million overall economic activity in the province
- 11 local jobs supported the event
- 756 out of town visitors in Kelowna
- $626,442 of wages and salaries supported locally
- $1.1 million boost to provincial GDP
- $441,227 in taxes supported across Canada
Dell says that the last time BreakOut West was hosted in Victoria was back in 2015, when Victoria bands and artists such as Jesse Roper, Current Swell and Jon and Roy were featured.
He added that currently, the Western Canadian Music Alliance is planning to host BreakOut West in Victoria in September 2026, although this has not been confirmed by the festival.
As an incentive to bring the festival here, the organizers have received financial commitments from the Province and from Destination Greater Victoria.
What Dell’s motion is calling for is for the City of Victoria to provide the Western Canadian Music Alliance with up to $25,000 of in-kind donations, in the form of space at the Victoria Conference Centre.
He hopes this additional incentive would help support the September 2026 BreakOut West, if it selects Victoria as its next host city.
This motion will be addressed at Thursday, September 4th’s committee of the whole meeting.
