Mayor John Tory is on his way to Austin for a two-day trade mission that coincides with the South by Southwest festival.
Tory was scheduled to fly out of Pearson International Airport at 2 p.m. alongside Councillors Michael Thompson and Josh Colle, Music Sector Development Officer Mike Tanner, Film Commissioner Zaib Shaikh and a number of industry representatives.
The trip is being billed as an opportunity to generate ideas on how to grow Toronto’s North by Northeast Music Festival as well as how to use the creative sector in general to spur economic growth.
South by Southwest, which has expanded to include an interactive and film festival alongside the initial music festival, generates an economic impact of $150 million annually compared to about $50 million for Toronto's North by Northeast.
“I want to see if we can do for the music industry what we have done for film in Toronto by saying we are going to build up some smaller festivals that we have now into some things that are really big and known around the world and South by Southwest is one of the biggest,” Tory told CP24 prior to boarding his plane. “They take a whole 10-block area of Austin and basically shut it down and turn it into live music everywhere. We would like to see if we can replicate that in Toronto. We have some great festivals but we need some that are bigger and that contribute even more to our economy and really put us on the map like TIFF does in the film business.”
The trip will include a meeting with Austin Mayor Steve Adler, a music event hosted by Texas Governor Greg Abbott at the Governor’s Mansion, a meeting with Austin business leaders and visits to technology companies in the city, including IBM and Google.
Speaking with CP24, Tory said his priority while in Austin will be “jobs, jobs, jobs,” though he said he will spend his evenings checking out South by Southwest venues and taking in performances, including those by the seven Toronto-based bands that are performing at the event.
While in Austin Tory is also expected to discuss how to grow the Austin-Toronto Music City Alliance with city officials, which was established in 2013 during former mayor Rob Ford's trade mission to the city.
“This year Nashville and London, England have shown up wanting to have an alliance with Austin because it has the biggest music festival in the world but we already have one and that was done by Mayor Ford and I give him credit for that but we are going to build on it, make it real and do something that other cities are trying to catch up to us with,” Tory told CP24.
Tory will return to Toronto on Thursday.
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