Communities · 03 of 04 · the agreement
One seasonal agreement plus an annual licence. Its whole frame is on this page while the text is still with the lawyers, so your board reads the rules before it spends a meeting deciding.
Our plan for 7–8 August 2027 at LeBreton Flats, subject to permits
The contract is being written now, and it is finished before the first invitation goes out. Publishing the frame early costs us nothing and saves a community a wasted meeting.
Status · 29 August 2026 · rewritten the day a line changes
| Item | Where it stands |
|---|---|
| What is signed | A Community Participation Agreement for the season, renewable, plus an annual pavilion licence · settled |
| Who signs it | Two signing officers of the community organisation, and a signing officer of the festival · settled |
| The eight sections | Settled in outline · the outline is on this page |
| The text itself | Being drafted · legal review before the first invitation |
| Published as a download | Before expressions of interest open, autumn 2026 |
| Fee attached to signing | $0 · the annual licence price is a separate discussion and is unset |
| Why there is no template to copy | Folklorama, Carassauga and Edmonton Heritage publish none of theirs · checked 27 August 2026 |
This is the whole shape of the contract. Every clause that follows in the drafted text sits under one of these headings.
Canon chapter 10 §2.5 · outline settled
Community Participation Agreement · outline settled, wording in drafting
The Festival takes no position on conflicts between states, governments or political movements, and provides no platform for such positions.
Communities on this field come from places at war with each other. The festival holds one line and holds it for everybody, and it holds it because the alternative has a measured price in this city.
Canon chapter 10 §2.2 and §2.5
The rule runs in two directions at once. The festival keeps its own opinions about foreign conflicts out of everything it publishes and everything said from its stage. In exchange, a community operator speaks for its community and for its pavilion, and refrains from speaking for the festival.
Your culture, your history, your language and your programme are yours to present in full. What the weekend has no room for is a platform aimed at another state or another community standing forty metres away.
Every decision made under this clause attaches to behaviour and to a numbered clause, and never to origin. «This organisation was declined because it declined clauses 4.2 and 4.5» is a decision a board can defend and a court can review. «This community was declined» is a lawsuit, and the Ontario Human Rights Code is why.
An appeal turns a decision into a procedure, and a procedure is the strongest protection a participant has. Every route below is in section 4 of the agreement.
Canon chapter 10 §2.5 · decision rights
| Decision | Who makes it | How it is recorded | Appeal |
|---|---|---|---|
| An application is declined | Programming & Licensing Committee, five to seven people, at least two of them unconnected to any community in the running | In writing, naming the reason | In writing to the board |
| A pavilion is suspended for the day | Event Director, alone and verbally on the spot | Written confirmation within 24 hours | In writing to the board |
| A person is required to leave the site | Event Director with a licensed guard | Incident log, with time and photograph | In writing to the board |
| The annual licence is not renewed | The board, on the committee's recommendation | In writing, naming the clause | In writing to the board |
An appeal is filed in writing within fourteen days and answered within thirty. The right to appeal belongs to every operator and stands in the agreement itself, on the page a board reads before it signs.
Inside a permitted perimeter the festival holds the powers an occupier holds under the Trespass to Property Act: it may state what is permitted, and everything else is closed. A verbal instruction from the site manager carries that force on its own. Outside the fence the Charter governs, the festival has no standing at all, and it says so plainly: the protection the agreement carries stops at the perimeter.
The licence is annual and renewable on purpose. Rotation is announced publicly from the first season, so a pavilion taking a year off is a normal event with a normal name.
Organisers' decision of record, 27 August 2026 · rotation from season one
The ones a secretary asks before putting the agreement to a vote.
hello@capitalcultures.com
The full text publishes here as a download before expressions of interest open in autumn 2026. The application on this site is a first conversation and binds nobody, so it can be sent long before the contract is signed.
Ask. Sections 1 to 6 apply identically to every operator, and changing them for one pavilion would end them for all of them. Everything operational — hours, pitch position, menu scope, crew arrangements — is negotiated pavilion by pavilion.
Declare it. Funding of a pavilion above $500 and any formal tie to a foreign state, diplomatic, party or religious structure are disclosed in section 1. Missions come in as programme partners behind a specific act, or as sponsors in the general list, and the operator stays the community organisation.
Anything addressed to a conflict between states, governments or movements. Songs, dances, dress, language, history and religious practice presented as your culture are the point of the weekend and carry no restriction.
Two signing officers of the incorporated organisation, under whatever your by-laws require. Your coordinator and deputy are named in the agreement without needing to be signatories.
Four pages hold the pavilion offer. Read them in any order; the application asks for what the first three describe.
Communities · 03 of 04
The first pass is ten minutes of typing and commits neither of us. Ask for a meeting if your board prefers to hear it in person.