Organizers of the Departure Festival announce the event’s rebranding at a November 2024 event. The inaugural Departure will include conference speakers Bryan Adams, Tegan and Sara, Jully Black and more.George Pimentel Photography/The Canadian Press
The annual Canadian Music Week shindig (newly branded as Departure Festival + Conference) has mutated since its origins in the early 1980s. The changes made to the country’s premiere industry event over the past year, however, have been tumultuous.
On June 3, 2024, Neill Dixon, who has owned and run CMW since 1993, dropped the bombshell that he would be retiring and that he had sold the festival to U.S. live entertainment developer Oak View Group and Toronto’s Loft Entertainment, led by former Bell Media head and Universal Music Canada CEO Randy Lennox.
Subsequently, the new owners announced they had changed the event’s name to Departure, and that programming would be expanded into comedy, film, tech and culinary arts. The newly branded music industry mainstay takes place May 6-11, headquartered at a new waterfront location, Hotel X.
The alterations caught Dixon off guard.
“It was a bit of a shock,” the 77-year-old industry veteran told The Globe and Mail recently. “But once you sell it, it’s like worrying who your ex-wife is dating. It’s none of my business.”
Things took a fractious turn this spring when Dixon filed a legal action, alleging the new owners had breached their contract and failed to pay fees tied to their acquisition of CMW. Not only did the lawsuit hang like a dark cloud over the re-energized music summit, plans to honour Dixon with a lifetime achievement award made things awkward to say the least.
But days before the conference’s opening keynote address, the parties resolved the dispute. Dixon chalked up the differences to a “clear miscommunication on my part with my colleagues at Loft and OVG, and, as a result, things escalated quickly.”
Highlights of the inaugural Departure include conference speakers Bryan Adams, Tegan and Sara, Merck Mercuriadis, Bob Lefsetz, Jully Black and the Arkells’ Max Kerman. On the performance side, hundreds of showcases take place at various downtown venues.
The premium comedy program includes shows by Dave Chappelle, Elvira Kurt and Pete Holmes. On May 7, an all-star roster of musicians pay tribute to the late broadcaster Dave Bookman with a concert of Tragically Hip covers.
FROM CMW TO DEPARTURE: A TIMELINE
1981: Music journalist David Farrell and his wife, Patricia Dunn-Farrell, create The Record, a Toronto-based trade paper. The couple are co-publishers, with writers Richard Flohil and Larry LeBlanc on board as co-founders.
1982: The Record launches the Record Music Industry Conference, a for-profit trade show and CMW precursor that concentrates on recording, broadcasting, retailing and promotion.
1983: Neill Dixon is hired to book speakers and organize panels. He becomes a partner a few years later. Coinciding with the annual Juno Awards, the Record Music Industry Conference hosts its own industry awards and, increasingly, live performances to showcase Canadian artists to domestic and international talent buyers.
1991: The Junos are held outside Toronto for the first time, in Vancouver. The Record Music Industry Conference accompanies the Junos west. It is the first and only time the conference takes place outside the country’s music industry nerve centre.
1993: After the conference loses money on its trip to Vancouver, Dixon buys out the Farrells for a symbolic $1 and rebrands the conference as Canadian Music Week. Still a trade fair for industry insiders, CMW increases its music festival component aimed at consumers. The event dissociates itself from the Junos, as that award show increasingly travels to different cities.
Neill Dixon with Kiss bassist Gene Simmons.Supplied
2009: CMW gets significant international exposure when outspoken industry insider Bob Lefsetz and outspoken Kiss bassist Gene Simmons exchange online insults after their respective keynote speeches. After which, they engage in a hastily organized but highly publicized debate in the main ballroom at the Fairmount Royal York hotel.
2018: Co-founder David Farrell is inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.
2024: On the first day of last year’s conferences, Dixon announces his retirement and the sale of CMW to Loft and Oak View for a reported $2-million. At a press conference later in the year, the new owners reveal the changed name, Departure Festival + Conference.
2025: Dixon launches legal action against the new owners for alleged breach of contract, but the lawsuit is subsequently dropped. On May 7, Dixon will receive a lifetime achievement award to help kick off Departure’s first year.
