P.E.I. Bailed Out Alanis Show

An Alanis Morissette concert in Prince Edward Island earlier this fall was nearly cancelled because of poor ticket sales, but the P.E.I. government gave the promoter a $400,000 loan to save the gig.

P.E.I. Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty said the promoters, Conference And Events Management, had told the P.E.I. tourism department that they were going to cancel the show. Docherty said in question period on Thursday that she thought cancelling the gig would have hindered future concerts from being held in P.E.I., so the department took $400,000 from taxpayers.

"The artists themselves were paid for, the equipment to host the site was paid for, everything was paid that they needed to host it," she said, according to Charlottetown's The Guardian newspaper. "For P.E.I. to back down on an advertised concert, whether or not we sold the 3,000 of 10,000 tickets we intended, it would probably be the last time P.E.I. would host a concert again."

The Liberal provincial government gave the promoters a $100,000 non-repayable grant and a $400,000 45-day loan that was intended to help Conference And Events Management pay the costs of the musical acts. The Guardian reports that while the promoters have repaid $100,000 of the loan, they recently told the government that they won't be able to return the outstanding $300,000. Docherty said the P.E.I. tourism department will cover the losses.

"Alanis Morissette, she certainly had a famous song," Progressive Conservative MLA Mike Currie said during question period, according to the CBC. "It was called 'Hand In My Pocket.' Well I'm certainly sure somebody had their hand in their pocket on this one."

About 3,000 people attended the Morissette gig in Alexandra, P.E.I., according to the CBC. Previous concerts by the Black Eyed Peas and Aerosmith, which were held in 2006 and 2007, were much more successful. Another promoter apparently wanted to bring Van Halen to P.E.I. this past summer, but the CBC says Docherty turned that show down. The promoter wanted $4 million, which she said was too much money during an already busy tourist season.