The Montreal International Jazz Festival is losing its main corporate sponsor, with General Motors of Canada calling it quits after the 30th edition of the festival next July.

GM is in the midst of a five-year agreement with the festival that saw it contribute an estimated $2.5 million annually towards the event’s $25-million budget. The agreement expires next summer. The automaker has sponsored the event for 10 years in total, and has been associated with several important elements of the festival, including the main outdoor stage and the General Motors Grand Jazz Award given to the best Canadian jazz band.

Despite the economic downturn, festival founder and president Alain Simard is confident he will be able to find another sponsor to replace GM.

“We’ve never had trouble finding sponsors in 30 years, because the jazz festival is the largest cultural event in Canada which attracts 2.5 million spectators and 400 journalists during the 12-day event. And most of those fans attend the 500 free outdoor concerts.

“It’s also a major tourist attraction, with 25% of the fans coming from outside Montreal, including 19% coming from outside Canada.”

Simard also noted that of the $105 million the festival brings into Montreal each year, about $64 million comes from outside Quebec.

Other major sponsors include Rio Tinto Alcan, Bell Canada, Canada Trust, La Presse and The Gazette newspapers and Hyatt Regency Hotel, none of which have indicated they’re dropping out.

“It was strictly an economic decision and a very difficult one for us to make,” said GM’s Montreal spokesperson Isabelle Perras. She did not rule out a return to the festival at a later date.

Stew Low, a spokesperson at the company’s Canadian head office in Oshawa, Ont., said GM will continue its other sponsorship commitments—which include the Alpine Canada ski team, Hockey Canada youth program, the Calgary Stampede and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

“But even with those properties, we will look at their activation to see if they still work for us or how we can make them work better, sometimes even for less money,” he said.