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There's no way around it: Festivals are in a bad way right now.
Just For Laughs made headlines internationally this week for cancelling this year's edition at a time when Netflix is dominating the world stage, following months of festivals citing climbing costs and bad publicity—from cancelled fireworks and as many as 16 different events citing the need for cash to poor planning that impacts the local businesses they're meant to support—and to top it all off, the world experiences the 'funflation' of ticket prices.
Across North America, organizers are seeing disproportionate increases in production costs, talent buyouts, and other numerous facets of the live event sphere. Without being able to draw in the big acts from around the world, where are we going to go from here?
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