Lisa Kearns on the Future of the Sound of Music Festival

About this episode

Lisa Kearns discusses the future of the Sound of Music Festival and the challenges it faces with funding and city council decisions.

Earlier this summer, we presented an episode on the Sound of Music festival. The free music festival is held each Father's Day weekend in downtown Burlington. The event has attracted big names in the past, like The Trews and The Arkells, to grace their stages. However, since COVID, the costs have risen steadily, and sponsorships have not kept pace. The festival is in dire straits, with 2025 possibly being the last unless a new model is discovered. To that end, the Festival went to the City of Burlington council to find a way to preserve the funding in some capacity. The City voted down the proposal. At the same time, the City has reached out to citizens to see what they want in a new Festival organizer going forward. What is the future of the festival in Burlington? Is there enough time to find a new organizer for next year? Is the Burlington City Council willing to let this icon of the community die? To answer these questions and more, I invited Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns to explain the city's decision-making process and what the city is hoping for going forward. Our previous episode with Brent Kinnaird from the Sound of Music Festival can be found here…

People in this episode

Host: The 905er

Guest: Lisa Kearns

Topics covered

• Sound of Music Festival
• Burlington
• City Council
• funding
• community events

Keywords

• Sound of Music Festival
• Burlington
• Lisa Kearns
• City Council
• funding
• music festival
• community

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: City of Burlington, Sound of Music festival, The Trews, The Arkells

More episodes of The 905er Podcast

• What a Year 2025 Was... · December 23, 2025 · 1h 8m
• Acorn Ontario Gets Evicted from the Legislature · December 2, 2025 · 43 min
• Is Ontario For Sale? · November 18, 2025 · 59 min
• St. Catharines’ MP Chris Bittle takes on Marineland · October 28, 2025 · 31 min
• Do We Need School Board Reform? With Andrea Grebenc · October 21, 2025 · 44 min
• Do We Need School Board Reform? With Nokha Dakroub · October 14, 2025 · 39 min