Atlantic Music Industry Copes With COVID-19

PORT HAWKESBURY - "Full stop."

That's how the head of one of Nova Scotia's busiest sound tech companies describes life for himself and his Strait Area-based employees, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that has decimated the Maritimes' festival and event schedule and left many people connected to the music industry out of work.

John Ellingbo is the owner and operator of Sound Source Pro Audio, which has won contracts for several large music events across Atlantic Canada over the past two decades. However, Ellingbo's 2020 calendar looks strikingly different, with the likes of the Stan Rogers Folk Festival in Canso, the Granville Green Concert Series in Port Hawkesbury, and the Cape Breton-wide Celtic Colours International Festival all pressing the pause button this year. Even Canada Day, normally a plum opportunity that has taken Sound Source Pro Audio around the East Coast, has fallen silent. 

While Ellingbo has been able to maintain his small staff and ensure that no one will be left out in the cold as a result of lost revenue, he is concerned that the Atlantic Canadian music indsutry will suffer long-term damage as a result of the cancellations that have come with Canada's strict social-distancing measures. 

However, Ellingbo is hoping that another of his roles will help provide some relief in this regard. He has sat for the past decade on the board of directors of the independently-run Cape Breton Music Industry Cooperative (CBMIC), which just recently renewed Ellingbo's board membership. The CBMIC has reduced its annual membership fee to five dollars in light of the pandemic, and membership in the cooperative now guarantees its applicants automatic membership within Music Nova Scotia (MNS) and the East Coast Music Association (ECMA). 

Ellingbo is also optimistic that the spark in homemade music-video postings to social media during the spring of 2020 will lead to a new generation of talent taking stages around the province once the pandemic is over. Pointing to the wildly successful Ultimate Nova Scotia Online Kitchen Party (COVID-19 Edition), which now has presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Ellingbo noted that many participants would not have had the courage to share their talents without such pandemic-era performance vehicles.