Carleton owner Mike Campbell on Halifax's music scene slump
Campbell says being located across from the Nova Centre construction has been hard for his business
This should be the best of times for Mike Campbell, owner of The Carleton Music Bar and Grill.
Tomorrow, he kicks off the Halifax Urban Folk Festival — eight days of music featuring more than 40 performers. Local band Hillsburn and Australian duo Oh Pep! will open the festival when they hit the stage at The Carleton.
"It's looking great. I think we've got the best talent lineup that we've ever had in the six years we've been doing this. We got people from all over Canada, a couple of international folks, we've got more venues than we've ever had before, three of them are free," he said.
"Like I said, the best talent probably. Now we just have to see if Halifax shows up."
The former MuchMusic VJ remembers arriving in Halifax in 1993. Back then the city was famously labelled the "Next Seattle" — a reference to Halifax's grunge scene in the early to mid 90s. Campbell says the city's music scene was cranking with packed bars all over the city hosting exciting acts.
Scene deterioriating
As a VJ, he would host gigs at universities all over Atlantic Canada, including six a year at Dalhousie's McInnes Room.
He says he has slowly watched the local scene lose steam over the past few decades.
"I think we're noticing in this city that the audience for live music has been deteriorating steadily probably since the late 80s, definitely into the 2000s," he said. "This city used to have about 15-to-20 live music venues, some of them held as many as 1500 people and they used to be full even during the week,"
"But over the last few years, probably the last dozen years, a lot of them have folded. So, there's not really very many choices left anymore. I think right now there's maybe three or four places that do it."
Despite first-rate music talent here on the east coast, Campbell says the scene is in a slump right now for several reasons. He cites the younger generation's preference for dance clubs over live music. Then there's the economy.
'Hope we survive'
And for The Carleton, which focuses on music and food, Campbell says there are other factors that are driving away business. His Argyle Street business is located directly across the street from all the dust and noise from the Nova Centre, the city's new convention centre that's been under construction since 2012.
"The construction stuff that's going on around us, killed a bunch of parking spaces, our public transit's not very good, the MacDonald Bridge is now closed. I think everybody's just planning to try and hold on 'til all of this is done. Keep our fingers crossed and hope we survive it."
The Nova Centre, behind schedule, has a new target completion date for the fall of 2016. For Campbell, it's a bleak financial picture.
"I would say that since the construction started across the street earnestly that my business is probably down about $400,000 since January 2014. It's unsustainable, basically."
All he can do is do what he's tried to do ever since he opened The Carleton back in May 2008.
"Well, we just have to continue to be as good as we can be on the restaurant front and continue to book the best live music I can find. We'll just try and keep doing what we're doing and do it better than we can and hopefully everything will be awesome."