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The Montreal firm that operates the Only for Laughs comedy pageant has cancelled this 12 months’s version because it seeks to keep away from chapter.
Groupe Juste pour rire Inc. stated in a information launch Tuesday that it’s searching for safety from its collectors because it begins formal restructuring beneath Canada’s Chapter and Insolvency Act.
The corporate stated it plans to proceed operations “in a scaled-down format” because it restructures and that it hopes the pageant will return in 2025.
“The choice to provoke restructuring proceedings was reached after thorough consideration of all choices out there to the corporate, bearing in mind its very troublesome monetary scenario given the numerous modifications in our enterprise panorama lately,” the corporate stated.
Julien Provencher-Proulx, a spokesman for Groupe Juste pour rire, confirmed that 75 staff, round 70 per cent of its employees, have been laid off Tuesday.
Tickets for the French and English comedy festivals in Montreal this summer season remained on sale on the corporate’s web site Tuesday.
Along with these festivals, numerous different performances in Quebec have additionally been cancelled.
Provencher-Proulx wrote in an electronic mail that individuals who have bought tickets can return them to the field workplace the place they have been bought or contact their bank card firm in the event that they bought tickets instantly from the pageant.
The Toronto Only for Laughs pageant, set to happen in September, is run by a separate group and has not been cancelled, Provencher-Proulx stated.
Juste pour rire, which held its first pageant in Montreal in 1983, blamed its monetary woes on numerous components, together with the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and the altering leisure business. It stated COVID pressured it “to successfully stop operations for 2 years.”
The corporate, whose officers declined interview requests, stated it’s on the lookout for new traders, or consumers for elements of its enterprise, and that it hopes to protect operations “as a lot as doable.”
It had laid off one other 21 staff in December, in accordance with a discover filed with Quebec’s Labour Division.
The corporate is 51 per cent owned by Bell and Montreal occasion promoter Evenko, whereas Los Angeles-based expertise company Inventive Artists Company owns 49 per cent. The pageant has offered lots of the greatest names in standup comedy, together with Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld.
Along with ticketed indoor exhibits, the French and English festivals featured free out of doors performances.
Martin Roy, the CEO of Quebec pageant affiliation the Regroupement des événements majeurs internationaux, stated that whereas he’s saddened by the information, he’s not shocked.
“We’ve been saying for months, even years, that issues are usually not going properly within the pageant sector, specifically for the festivals which are offered freed from cost, amongst others, in downtown Montreal,” he stated in an interview.
Inflation has pushed the value of internet hosting a pageant up by 35 to 40 per cent since 2019, he stated.
Response to the information began pouring in on X, previously Twitter, with many saddened by the cancellation of the favored pageant.
“Unfathomable” and a “massive loss” have been some simply a number of the reactions, with one commentator mentioning the potential financial fallout for the town from misplaced tourism {dollars}.
— With recordsdata from World Information’ Annabelle Olivier, The Canadian Press’ Stéphane Rolland
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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