The return of the RBCxMusic Concert Series at the 2022 RBC Canadian Open being held at the iconic St. George’s Golf and Country Club is a unique promotion for the golf event and a distinctive way to introduce the sport to a younger generation. RBC or Royal Bank of Canada announced three-time Grammy Award-winning pop rock band Maroon 5 and hip-hop icon Flo Rida will be headlining.
Understanding that organizing a concert series must be a challenge and difficult dealing with all the logistics. However, I wondered why no Canadian band is performing? As we come out of the pandemic and start our lives again this would have been a great way to have a great Canadian music festival and support the Canadian music industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit musicians hard and the Canadian Live Music Association (CLMA) is urging the government of Canada to support companies, organizations and artists who are facing financial ruin due to concert and event cancellations.
“If we lose our concert industry, we lose the heart and soul of who we are as a country,” reads the CLMA letter, which asks the government to set-up a compensation fund, assistance for self-employed artists and small businesses, easy access to EI and tax relief.
Maroon 5 and hip-hop icon Flo Rida may not be the preferred music of golf’s demographic or the majority of people attending the Canadian Open. However, it does offer Golf Canada a promotion to attract a younger audience and hopefully some will come to watch golf and then attend the concert.
Maybe organizers can learn a little from the R&A and the upcoming 150th Open at St. Andrews in July. Expecting a record attendance, the R&A wants to ensure the Championship is accessible to young people and a record 20% of general admission tickets have been allocated to fans under the age of 25, including over 20,000 children aged under 16 who will be attending free of charge thanks to the long-running Kids Go Free initiative.
Now this may not be financially feasible or logistically possible for Golf Canada to copy but if you are promoting Maroon 5 and Flo Rida and attracting a younger generation, make it possible and affordable for them to attend.
