Calgary poised to become 'Nashville North' as Premier Smith explores music city strategy

Premier Danielle Smith travelled to Tennessee this week to study how Nashville built its world-class music industry, meeting with the state chamber of commerce and tourism leaders as part of Calgary's long-running effort to position itself as "Nashville North."

"I thought I'd take advantage of some of the expertise that's down there. We've been trying for some time to have Calgary become Nashville North," Smith said at a news conference Tuesday. "I want to find out a little bit about what that is, and see if we can develop some excellent partnerships with the music industry so that we can do a transfer of talent and transfer of expertise."

Nashville made intentional changes 25 years ago to become what it is today, Smith noted. Large parts of its growth came from deliberate government, industry and community investment into key infrastructure, particularly along Broadway, where free live music plays from honky tonk bars. By contrast, Calgary's Stephen Avenue is busy mostly during weekday lunch hours with office workers.

Calgary's music industry currently generates around $2.3 billion in value — a fraction of Nashville's $28.3 billion. West Anthem released its "Resonant Energies: A Music City Strategy for Calgary" on May 28, 2024, envisioning the city as a destination for music creatives and entrepreneurs at the forefront of a growing industry. Research published throughout 2023 culminated in two strategies and a toolkit tailored for Calgary, Edmonton and smaller Alberta jurisdictions.

Program-funded organizations include small to mid-sized theatre, dance and music performance spaces in Calgary, plus presenting and support organizations in media, literature and visual arts.

Andrew Mosker, president and CEO of the National Music Centre, said conversations around growing Calgary's music industry have been ongoing for more than a decade, "but it's really started to pick up speed, though, in the past year, with conversations around noise bylaws, the balance between urban and residential development and live music, and how those can coexist together in a harmonious way. It's a growing pain, but it's a very positive growing pain, because the opposite is no one's interested in the potential."

Mosker, who studied how music cities around the world came to be through work with the National Music Centre and West Anthem, emphasized that Nashville's success was not organic: "A lot of people think Nashville just happened organically. It didn't. Rather, it was a matter of government, industry and community coming together to make a plan to bolster the music scene." He called Smith's Tennessee visit "a very positive step in moving forward to build out the opportunity for something like a bona fide music city to really exist."