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No KISS, no tell

Fall rock concert cancelled, local organizers unable to pinpoint ‘logistical’ problems
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Kiss Cancelled No platforms, no paint, no KISS tongues in Whistler.

Less than two weeks after it was announced, Whistler’s Sizzling September Concert Series has fizzled, and no one seems to know why.

But when it comes to organizing ticketed concerts in Whistler, third party event producers seem to have a “general problem with the business model,” a municipal staff member said.

And a five-year contract with Big Mountain Concert Company, the firm responsible for coordinating the KISS concert and two others, that was to have gone to Whistler council for approval Tuesday was withdrawn after the announcement of the concert cancellation earlier in the day.

Big Mountain was working in conjunction with the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb and Tourism Whistler on the concert series that was announced on Aug. 22, just over three weeks before KISS was scheduled to perform at the Coca Cola tube park on Blackcomb.

But Tuesday morning, Big Mountain sent out a release stating that “due to logistical problems at the mountain concert site” the KISS concert had been cancelled.

Marnie Wilson, spokesperson for Big Mountain, said there were simply too many “logistical issues” to deal with in such a short time frame, forcing promoters to cancel the show.

But in an interview early last week, president of Big Mountain, Dennis MacDonald, expressed confidence in his company’s ability to pull off the upcoming concert series. He said they had been planning the event and working on booking KISS for over a year, but had only signed the act recently because of scheduling issues.

“They liked the idea of doing it on the mountain, and while we had been negotiating and talking and going back and forth for a long, long time, it finally just came together.”

When questioned last week over the tight timeline, MacDonald said planning and logistical details were taken care of.

“Everything else is lined up. The engineering drawings of the mountain are completed, the engineering drawings for the stage are completed, the stage is completed, the lighting and the sound is all done — it’s now just a matter of moving in.”

So what changed?

Big Mountain representatives wouldn’t elaborate on the “logistical issues with the mountain site” that led to the cancellation of the concert.

When questioned about Big Mountain’s press release that identified problems with the “mountain site,” Breton Murphy, spokesperson for Tourism Whistler, said they weren’t aware of any problems with the venue.

“To our knowledge, there were no issues with the physical site that were preventing the event from going forward,” Murphy said.

Tourism Whistler representatives also issued a press release Wednesday, stating the problem lies with “show logistics,” but were unable to offer any further explanation.

Either way, Tuesday’s announcement was a let-down for everyone involved.

“The Whistler partners and Big Mountain Concerts had invested a lot of time into preparing for what promised to be an exciting event that would draw many people to Whistler,” Tourism Whistler’s release stated.

In an interview last week Tourism Whistler’s Michele Comeau Thompson said the concert announcement had already started generating business.

“Whistler.com’s phones started ringing off the hook… they saw lots of calls coming through immediately for people who wanted to come and stay during the KISS concert,” she said.

Since then, a notice has gone out to advise all customers who booked KISS packages through whistler.com of the cancellation.

Whistler hasn’t had the best track record when it comes to bringing big-name concerts to town. One of the last large music events was the Faith Hill concert, which was held on Blackcomb Mountain in 2004.

This year, Tourism Whistler opted to cancel the Whistler Music and Arts Festival, instead deciding to partner with third-party companies, like Big Mountain and The Festival Network, to organize ticketed shows.

John Rae, manager of strategic alliances for the RMOW, pointed out that within the past few years, the municipality has brought many major musical acts to the area as the entertainment component of major events, like the Telus World Ski & Snowboard Festival.

“We’re actually providing extensive concerts in an effort to encourage people to come up to Whistler and enjoy the weekend or the week in Whistler, so all of the concerts that we offer are free,” said Rae.

But when it comes to organizing ticketed concerts, he said third party event producers seem to have a “general problem with the business model.”

And it looks like the KISS failure has ended the working relationship between Big Mountain and Whistler.

At Tuesday evening’s council meeting, Rae withdrew a recommendation that Whistler councillors approve a new, five-year contract with Big Mountain Concerts.

The proposed agreement, which stated that Big Mountain would produce a minimum of one live outdoor music event per year from 2007 through 2011, was almost a replica of last year’s contract between Playground Performances and Events Whistler. That contract was declared null and void after a concert also failed to materialize in 2006.

Playground was actually restructured and renamed Big Mountain Concert Company.

Rae also suggested that neither party is interested in entering into the five-year agreement any longer.

“This isn’t going to come before us again next year, is it?” asked Councillor Eckhard Zeidler at Tuesday’s meeting.

“It is not,” stated Rae.

When asked if the cancelled concert would reflect poorly on Whistler, Mayor Ken Melamed admitted it was a disappointment all around.

“This thing kind of came out of the blue and it disappeared almost as quickly,” said the mayor.

“…It was almost too good to be true and now it’s cancelled. There may be some very disappointed fans. Council’s disappointed and so is staff. They put in a lot of time.”

The mayor said he didn’t think more resources needed to be directed to Events Whistler to help put on these larger, ticketed shows.

Rather, Melamed said the challenge is to find an organization with the capacity, expertise and financial backing to pull an event of this size off.

“Very clearly the failure to produce concerts makes it a significant challenge and I think we’re still waiting in the hopes that an organization like this comes forward,” said Melamed.

Mike Brew is one of many dissatisfied local KISS fans who purchased tickets to the fall concert. Brew assumed it was just a rumour when he first heard KISS was coming to town, and was even more skeptical when he found out the concert fell on his birthday.

After the event was confirmed, he spent hours on the phone and Internet last week, trying to get a ticket for the show. He ended up spending over $280 on a VIP ticket.

“It’s one of those too good to be true things, and I guess it came out that way in the end,” Brew said.

Big Mountain hasn’t announced the other two acts that were supposed to perform in the weekends following the KISS concert, and Wilson said she is unsure if those performances would also be cancelled.

By Wednesday morning, KISS’s official website had not been updated, and still showed a performance scheduled for Whistler on Sept. 15.

Wilson had been trying since last Wednesday to find out how many tickets had been sold, and by Tuesday afternoon, still had no information.

Secureticket.org, the company selling tickets to the concert, will be refunding customers’ money.

With notes from Alison Taylor.