What brings more money to the local economy? Arts or sports?

What’s the value of a festival to a small Prairie community?

Millions of dollars.

For example, the Swift Current Windscape Festival brings $3 million to the local economy.

Up to 11,000 people travel to Swift Current, practically doubling the size of the small community over two days.

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to go to the Swift Current Windscape Kite Festival. If you haven’t been, I would highly recommend it.

I would describe the festival as whimsical. Children are running around and flying kites alongside the stage of show-stopping kite artists from all over the world who were there to exhibit their talents.

Swift Current is a Saskatchewan city with close to 17,000 people that sits along the Trans-Canada Highway just an hour and a half before the Alberta border.

The Windscape Festival has been around for almost 20 years.

Technically, it began in 1998, when the Art Gallery of Swift Current hosted an exhibition by Canadian kite builders. There was also a kite festival that year, and serious kite flyers were invited to put on a show. However, the kite festival wouldn’t happen again until 2005, when it became an annual festival.

Atop a hill overlooking the prairie, the festival goes ahead, rain or shine. Strong winds or no winds.

The event is entirely free to attend.

Despite the benefits to the city, the festival was on the brink of death last fall because it didn’t have enough money or volunteers to continue. The community rallied, and the festival went ahead this summer.

The future is looking more optimistic. Windscape kept its entry free this year and saw over 6,300 people attend.

The backbone of this year’s event was the 238 volunteers who devoted their time to making the festival a success.

Thirty-eight kite artists from Italy, Columbia, the United States, and Canada dazzled the crowds with their aerobatics and dazzling kite designs. 

Alongside the title sponsor of SaskPower, 120 local and provincial sponsors, including the City of Swift Current, helped to raise $110,000 in sponsorship cash, products, and services.  

The cultural sectors in Manitoba and Saskatchewan are worth billions of dollars

I bring the festival up because sometimes people undervalue the impact of cultural events in the community.

If I asked you what contributed more to the economy, arts and culture or sports, you might be inclined to say sports. However, according to statistics from the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance, Saskatchewan’s arts and culture sector created over 15,000 jobs, produced $2.8 billion of economic output and contributed 1.6 billion to the provincial gross domestic product. (GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services bought by the final user produced in a specific area).

Meanwhile, sports employed 3,100 people, created $408 million in economic output and contributed $272 million to the provincial GDP.

In Manitoba, the arts and culture sector contributed $1.7 billion to the provincial GDP and over 20,000 jobs in 2022.

One could roll sports in with the arts and culture sector and call it arts, culture and recreation.

So, while we think of the agriculture sector or the mining sector as important to the Prairies, and they are, it’s also worth knowing that arts, culture and recreation also make a significant impact on our local economies.