2024 President’s Letter

To the MCMA Membership,

On behalf of myself and our entire Board of Directors, I would like to wish each and every one of you all the best this Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year.

I’d love to take just a moment to share some of our incredible successes in 2024 with you:

1) The MCMA once again attended Dauphin’s Countryfest to help support and bring attention to the MCMA artists performing there this past summer. This year, with the help of our sponsors Styling’s RV, Dauphin’s Countryfest and Gibbs Promotions, we were able to have a much bigger presence at Countryfest. Countryfest provided us with a campsite on Media Row where we parked the motorhome provided by our great friends at Styling’s RV. Gibbs Promotions provided a box full of MCMA koozies for us to hand out to friends and fans. Over the course of the weekend, we were able to host many live performances at our site, bringing attention to some of the MCMA artists who were performing at Countryfest. Countryfest also asked us to host the After Party in the VIP tent every night, which was a great honour and another great opportunity to showcase MCMA artists.

2) This past November, we held our biggest and most-successful Manitoba Country Music Awards. Club Regent Casino and Event Centre has been the perfect place for us to hold our awards show, as it is one of the best rooms in the province for sound, lighting and seating. We sold out the entire Event Centre, not including the mezzanine level. However, it looks like we’ll have to ask Club Regent Event Centre to open the mezzanine next year! The 2025 Awards Show is already booked for November 8, 2025, and it will be our Ten-Year Anniversary. Special thanks to our local Manitoba boys Chris and Dave from Doc Walker for hosting our 2024 Manitoba Country Music Awards – they did a fantastic job! Also, thanks to the whole team at Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries and at Club Regent Casino and Event Centre for working with us to make this event so very successful.

3) Saturday evening before the 2024 Manitoba Country Music Awards, we were pleased to present Doc Walker at The Royal George with Jordan and Davey from NCI FM talking about “Industry Insights and Road Stories.” It was great to hear Chris and Dave talk about their time in the country music industry. That was followed by our MCMA “Country in the City” Kickoff Party at The Royal George Hotel. It was a great way to get the Manitoba Country Music Awards Weekend started and showcase some of our MCMA Industry members from outside of Winnipeg.

4) We continue to work at establishing a much better relationship with the Province of Manitoba and are continuing to work on funding opportunities with the province.

5) This year, our social media team has done an outstanding job sharing content from our country music community in Manitoba. Our social media has never looked better and the team has been able to share more interesting and relevant information with our followers.

6) MCMA was again asked to help with the Dauphin’s Countryfest Battle of the Bands. Along with partners Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries, McPhillips Station Casino and River City Records, we were able to be a big part of four weeks of incredible competition that had Nelson Little win the big prize of a spot to perform at Dauphin’s Countryfest and a recording package at River City Records.

And, that is just a snapshot of a few of the highlights for us at the MCMA for 2024. For an organization that does not receive any operational funding from any government or any other agency, we are thrilled to be able to have had such great success in 2024.

We will be holding our AGM in late January or early February 2025, at the Canad Inns Transcona. Please check our MCMA web page for more information.

If you are interested in learning more or have any questions regarding the MCMA, please send an email to manitobacma@gmail.com

Please refer to our website at www.ManitobaCMA.com for more specific information on and about the MCMA.

Please check our Facebook page often at https://www.facebook.com/ManitobaCMA for information about the MCMA and our members. You will often find links there to virtual concerts or other projects our members are working on.

During this Holiday Season, I wish you all peace, happiness and a chance to spend quality time with those closest to you.

Respectfully,

Miles Trach
President
Manitoba Country Music Association