03/24/2026
MEDIA RELEASE - For Immediate Release
WESTPORCH IS CANCELLED. And Westport Town Hall is why.
Westport, Ontario, March 24, 2025 - For five years, WestPorch brought thousands of people, an influx of revenue for Village businesses, and pure joy to this Village. No injuries. No fights. No property damage. Just music, community, and a small town doing what it does best.
This year, it's not happening. Not because the organizers gave up on Westport, but because the Mayor Jones administration made it impossible to continue.
Here's what happened.
Last fall, organizers reached out to Town Hall to talk safety and collaboration for WestPorch 2026. What came back was empty promises, a $900+ bill for roadblocks the Village erected at last year’s event without consulting the event organizers, and a proposed special events policy written without a single conversation with the people who actually run events in this community.
The organizers reviewed that policy and did the math. The risks, both financial and logistical, are too high and here's why:
The Village can bill you for any damage. Any damage. Even if it was caused by a random passerby, a resident, or someone who had nothing to do with the festival. No way to prove otherwise. No protection for organizers.
Event applications are due 60 days prior to the event. WestPorch 2025 took six months to pull off by three volunteers who donated a thousand hours of their own time. They spent $10,000 of their own money up front. They gave up most of their Saturdays all summer selling “the best Peameal on a Bun in town”. They built the website, ran the social media, matched porches with musicians, sold T-shirts, negotiated the headliner, built a stage, and coordinated 22 porches across town. You can't do that in 60 days.
The Mayor Jones administration can cancel the event. Anytime. For any reason. The policy gives the administration the right to pull the plug, before or during the event, at their sole discretion. Imagine local businesses having called in extra staff, organizers having spent thousands, and then: cancelled. No recourse.
$5,000,000 in liability insurance. On the volunteers. That kind of policy can cost over $2,500 for a town-wide, outdoor music festival like WestPorch. For a community event run by unpaid volunteers raising money through T-shirt sales and peameal sandwiches. For the record, WestPorch 2025 was insured: individual porches were covered under homeowner's insurance, and additional insurance was purchased for the after-party, held on private property, though at a significantly lower liability amount than $5M.
You must provide a plan to control the traffic flow. In an entire town. WestPorch works because people wander freely from porch to porch. That's the whole point. There is no plan that can guarantee where a crowd of 4,000 will or won't gather. The only "solution" would be closing every road in Westport for six hours, which we realize is unrealistic.
You're responsible for every piece of litter. In the entire Village. Festival goers, residents, people just passing through — doesn't matter. It's on the organizers because there is no way to prove where the litter or garbage came from.
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Last year, 4,000+ people came to Westport from as far away as Florida. The after-party had 1,500 people out in the cold singing 80s hits at the top of their lungs. Hotels and Airbnbs sell out a year in advance for the WestPorch weekend. Restaurants have hour-long waits. Musicians from Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto are reaching out asking how to get on the lineup.
This festival made the third weekend in September in Westport.
We asked for dialogue. We asked for collaboration. What we received was more paperwork, regulations, costs and risk. We cannot keep absorbing the financial risk of being treated like a liability instead of an asset.
We love this community. This festival exists because of this community.
All funds donated/earmarked for WestPorch 2026 will be donated to the Westport Food Bank.
Thank you for five incredible years. 🎶
