The Pitter Patter Music Festival was initiated as defiance to the more profit-driven music festivals in Toronto. Seeing the unnecessary and bold thievery of young talented artists, Pitter Patter founder Keith Hamilton set out to design a festival which ensured the fair treatment of artists and sought out unrecognized talent to showcase. Also acknowledging that many bands travel remarkable distances to perform, he sought out venues in surrounding cities to offer the artists multiple audiences. Th...
The Pitter Patter Music Festival was initiated as defiance to the more profit-driven music festivals in Toronto. Seeing the unnecessary and bold thievery of young talented artists, Pitter Patter founder Keith Hamilton set out to design a festival which ensured the fair treatment of artists and sought out unrecognized talent to showcase. Also acknowledging that many bands travel remarkable distances to perform, he sought out venues in surrounding cities to offer the artists multiple audiences. This year the festival will be hosted in Windsor, Bayfield, Guelph, Hamilton, Welland, Mississauga, Toronto, Oshawa, Peterborough and Kingston (and likely more).
Pitter Patter has reserved a minimum of 5 performance slots for Sonicbids artists. Participants are encouraged to promote their set to ensure fair compensation, as all door receipts are directed fully to the performing artists.
In the festival's first year, PPMF ran in direct calendar competition with Canadian Music Week and hosted 29 shows over 5 days in Hamilton, Toronto and Oshawa. The festival was a complete success and future expansion was the only realistic option.
During its second year the festival included 35 shows over 4 days in London, Toronto, Oshawa, Lindsay, Peterborough and Belleville. The over 100 bands who played the festival were all justly compensated for their efforts.
In its third year, the festival grew to 8 cities and featured over 150 bands. The major shift at this point was in the area of accessibility as the festival became an entirely pay-what-you-can affair for the patrons. All past festivals were built on countless hours of support from local volunteers who believed in the vision of the Festival and both previous festivals received positive recognition from local media. As a testament to the quality of the acts which have played the Pitter Patter stage, many past performers have gone on to represent Canada at the international level.
The Pitter Patter Music Festival is based on a simple set of principals:
- Fair compensation to the artists
- Easy access for the patrons
- The need to discover and cultivate new Canadian talent
- The desire to expand the radius of support for new music outside of Toronto
By sticking with the above principals and the not-for-profit ideals on which the festival was founded Pitter Patter hopes to continue expanding and ultimately envisions itself as a national festival, setting the standard for how Canada supports the arts.