Shaw Festival Theatre Annual Report - Shaw Festival Theatre

2025
Our Revenue Sources
Earned revenue 53%
Fundraising 42%
Government Grants – Operating 5%

Attendance for the 2025 Season – 340,629
811 live performances were delivered to 222,169 attendees.

In addition, 5339 Education and Outreach activities, classes and events were given to approximately 118,460 attendees.

Economic Impact
The Shaw Festival is Niagara’s largest cultural charity and one Niagara’s 20 largest employers. The Shaw is a driving force of the regional tourism ecology, normally leveraging $300 million per annum to Ontario’s cultural and tourism economy, or more than $7+ in local and regional spend for every dollar spent with the theatre. Shaw Festival patrons visit the area for several days (on average), spending significantly on local accommodations, dining, winery visits, retail and many other tourism-related experiences.

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statement 2025
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statement 2025

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statement 2024
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statement 2024

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statement 2023
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2023

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2022
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2022

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2021
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2021

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2020
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2020

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2019
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2019

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2018
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2018

Shaw Festival Theatre Financial Statements 2017
Shaw Festival Endowment Foundation Financial Statements 2017

Each year we welcome almost 325,000 attendees to our theatre.

In 2023, we will have produced over 900 performances of 18 separate productions and concert series – with 14 of those running concurrently in daily rotating repertory – meaning each theatre runs as many as three different shows every day and each actor is performing in two or more plays and/or concerts that often also includes understudying several more.

These productions occur on three indoor and two outdoor stages, six days a week. They began in February, ramping up to full capacity April to mid-October and resume with two holiday shows – Brigadoon and A Christmas Carol – in November and December – and beginning next Sunday, the 5^th. I hope you will come to see them.

Beyond the performances, we will offer almost 4,000 additional audience engagement and community outreach activities, events and classes.

We are supported in this work by our Shaw Guild, an organization of 350 local volunteers who help us in everything from gardening and greeting to ticket taking and backstage tours; and by our four volunteer boards of directors.

Shaw patrons come and stay in the area for long periods, often anchoring extended annual vacations around a multi-performance theatre experience. The average Canadian household buys six tickets. The average U.S., or international household, buys 8-10. With only 15-17% of those attendees coming from the Greater Niagara Region or Hamilton corridor, we are the epitome of a cultural tourism destination.

Last year, 2022, saw the highest gross revenue year in our history, with income of over $36.5 million. As we receive only around 5% of our normal operating budget from all government sources, including provincial and federal arts councils, we must raise over $12 million in annual charitable donations from individual philanthropic supporters simply to break even. Fortunately, more than 14,000 households choose to support us philanthropically each year, from both the U.S. and Canada.

U.S. patrons account for between 30-35% of our normal attendance, and while much of that is border state driven, with tens of thousands of attendees coming annually from centers like Cleveland, Buffalo, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Rochester. Chicago, Manhattan and Florida are also major markets. Added to that, we have over 1,000 attendees coming every year from each of nine more distant markets including Southern California (San Diego/ LA Jolla), Connecticut, Texas (Houston, Dallas, Austin), Illinois (rural), Minnesota (MSP), New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts and Maryland. We also get approximately 3,000 international attendees each year. They all anchor long stays in the Region around their Shaw experience. In fact, 92% of our visitors specifically cite the Festival as their primary reason for visiting Niagara.

The rest of our attendees arrive from across literally every district of Ontario and beyond.

Because of this unusually long visitor stay culture, and the variety of available activities that surround us, The Shaw has grown to become the largest generator of economic impact of any independent arts and culture charity in Ontario, and one of the largest in North America.

The economic impact of the Shaw Festival on the Region of Niagara – pre-pandemic and will hopefully become again – was, according to a recent PwC Canada study on The Shaw’s economic impact to the province that was released last month, in excess of $237.8 million/annum and the single largest factor in Niagara’s arts and culture economy.

This includes over $85 million in hotels and accommodations, $77 million in restaurant, bar and grocery spend, $37 million in retail and local attractions and $31 million in travel, including rail, air and ground.

This results in total GDP, or value added, of almost $200 million/annum.

PwC Canada also tells us more than 2,100 Niagara area jobs in tourism and hospitality, beyond our own 600+ employees, are reliant on us for their existence and stability, and we know, synergistically, that we are reliant on them for their gold standard services and amazing wine, food and activity offerings.

To read more from Shaw Festival, Executive Director Tim Jenning’s speech for the Niagara Economic Summit: Shaping a Better Future (2023), click below.

Tim Jenning’s Speech

The Economic Case for More Funding for the Arts

By Tim Jennings
Special to The Globe and Mail
Published March 27, 2024

As a country, we are still recovering.

According to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer’s most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook, “sluggish growth” will continue to define Canada’s economy this year.

But the issues facing our economy, while complex, are not insurmountable. We do, however, need to think differently about how we tackle them.

Historically, investments in the arts and culture sectors have been missing from our long-term growth strategies. The Arts are often seen as a ‘nice to have’ in policy making, rather than cornerstones of Canadian thought and development, and seldom as the major economic drivers they are.

In its latest outlook, Destination Canada projected that growth in the tourism sector will outpace the overall economy. The Ontario Arts Council also recently published a report showing arts and culture tourists spend three times more than other tourists, helping to generate more jobs, growth and investment into local economies.

As one example, for every dollar spent at the Shaw Festival Theatre, in Niagara, more than seven dollars of additional spending by our patrons is added into local restaurants, wineries, and attractions, with a significant percentage – more than 1/3 – coming from US patrons. This results in over $240 million per year in additive economic activity to the region, a massive amount for any business, and particularly noteworthy for a charity.

In a recent analysis by PwC, an expansion of the Shaw Festival’s capacity and infrastructure could produce an additional half a billion dollars in new economic value in the region over the coming decade and yield a remarkable 15:1 return on investment, as well as save Canadians twice that in social and health benefits generated through its programs.

But The Shaw is far from alone in yielding such remarkable returns for local economies. Cultural attractions across the country draw millions of visitors from Canada and abroad each year and inject hundreds of millions of dollars into host cities through associated spending on food, accommodations, travel, attractions and retail.

Conversely, their disappearance is devastating, not only for local communities but also our broader economy. It’s sadly an impact not fully appreciated until it’s gone. The cancellation of the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal this year, after over 40 years, is a stark example. The two week long festival contributed roughly $34 million annually to Quebec’s GDP, or the equivalent of over 500 full time jobs, and is now missing from this coming summer.

A dollar invested in this kind organization simply goes much further than in other sectors – not only because these organizations are mostly purpose-driven non-profits and charities who have historically had to do more with less, but also because they have a long track record of bringing the right players together – from private donors, to businesses and other non-profits, to the broader community.

With business and community leaders at the table, the key player now missing is government.

As we continue to face economic uncertainties, we need federal, provincial and our regional governments to recognize cultural infrastructure as a necessary booster of productivity and growth, in an ongoing way, and not an unnecessary expense. One that will bring significant private partnerships to bear to the good of the communities they serve. Investing in cultural projects now will unlock a more prosperous and enlightened future for Canada and for us all.

Tim Jennings is the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Shaw Festival.