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July 19, 2025

Stratford Festival gets $250,000 funding boost from province

Funding comes at a time when the Festival is looking to extend their 2025 season, executive director says.July 26, 2025

Stan Cho, Ontario's minister of tourism, culture and gaming, announced Friday that the Stratford Festival is receiving $250,000 from the province during a ceremony at the Tom Patterson Theatre. (Bill Atwood/Beacon Herald)

One of Stratford’s biggest economic drivers is getting a funding boost.

Stan Cho, Ontario’s minister of tourism, culture and gaming, announced Friday that the Stratford Festival will be receiving a $250,000 grant from the Experience Ontario 2025 fund.

Cho, who made the announcement at the Tom Patterson Theatre, noted the Festival – beyond its economic contributions, which were estimated at more than $276 million in 2023 – is living proof of Ontario’s rich arts and culture sector.

“I think without the arts and culture, we’re not very human at all, and that’s why our government is proud to support, through Experience Ontario and the Ontario Arts Council, various festivals and events throughout the province,” he said.

The Experience Ontario fund comes at a time when the Canadian way of life and the country’s prosperity are being threatened by the volatile policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, Cho said.

“I think what he’s done inadvertently is given us a moment to reflect on what makes us appreciate being Canadian and to get to live here,” the tourism minister said. During his remarks, Cho told the dignitaries at the Tom Patterson Theatre that nine-in-10 Ontarians expect to travel within the province’s borders at some point this year. “You see that groundswell of pride all over the place,” Cho said. The Festival’s executive director, Anita Gaffney, described the provincial funding as “important financial underpinning” as they look to extend their successful 2025 season.

“(That is) a move that would be vital in shifting Stratford from a three-season destination to a four-season tourism magnet,” Gaffney said. Artistic director Antoni Cimolino said the Festival has the “responsibility” of selling 7,000 every day during the city’s peak tourism season.

“We take our economic role in this community very seriously. As a matter of fact, this theatre was started in 1952 for the economic development of this community. It wasn’t started for artistic reasons. The artistic reasons were there, and they were very strong, but the first impetus for the citizens of this community is they needed something to drive the economic engine of the town,” he said.

Although the Festival announced a significant deficit of $1.1 million in 2024, Friday’s announcement was not emergency funding made in response, Cho said in a later interview. “If you want to call it a response to something, it is the fact that the Stratford Festival is a cultural and artistic icon in our country, and we’re proud to support that,” he said. The Festival is in strong shape and is actually seeing an increase in visitors this season from the United States, Cimolino said, but declined to give specific numbers, promising they would share accurate figures at a later date. “It’s a terrific year, and what I think investment tends to do wisely is leverage success,” Cimolino said. Announced in January, the Experience Ontario 2025 fund is investing nearly $20 million in 350 events and festivals across the province.