The Steinbach Arts Council is facing a new challenge in finding a venue that has enough seating capacity for its larger events. Chief Creative Officer Cindi Rempel Patrick says Steinbach Mennonite Church has generally been the place they rent for shows like the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert that took place last week. She adds they sold out the 800 seats as usual and then ran into a glitch.

"Just prior to the concert this year, we were informed that there had been some new Fire Code regulations that had been put into place in that venue which actually removed about 80 chairs that we normally would seat and already sold for the event. It's a nice problem to have when you sell out. But it was a little bit of a glitch not having enough chairs for the tickets we sold this year."

Rempel Patrick says the 80 people had to be moved into the lobby area and, thankfully, those patrons were very understanding. She notes the fewer numbers of available seats at Steinbach Mennonite will pose a challenge in the future.

"The church is one of the largest venues that we have. We're now down 80 seats there to 720. So we're actually going down in the capacity but the demand is higher. And, we rely on those extra 80 seats to help us break even on that concert. That is another big issue that if we have to sell fewer tickets in the future, we won't even be able to cover the costs."

Rempel Patrick adds this again emphasizes the point that Steinbach needs a good arts performance venue with at least 800 seats to meet the demand in the community.

"The need for a stronger and larger performance venue for this southeast region has never been greater.  In October, the production of The Pirates of Penzance was also limited to running 4 sold out nights, in the 300 seat SRSS theatre.  Limited seating venues also affect the standard of artists you are able to attract while striving to keep ticket prices accessible for the public."

The church auditorium was packed for the WSO performance.