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Pemberton wants festival back
Festival ‘lost a lot of money,’ but organizer won’t say how much
by Jesse Ferreras
- It's A Hit Pembertonians gave the inaugural Pemberton Festival a high five. Photo by Andrew Mitchell
The verdict is in: Pemberton wants its music festival back, but
not without consulting all necessary stakeholders.
The community got its answer at a standing-room only public
meeting at the Pemberton Community Centre on Sept. 11. Hundreds of
Pembertonians gathered to provide feedback as festival director Shane
Bourbonnais and Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy took questions and comments.
“I think it’s safe to say it’s one of the biggest events, or
the biggest single event, short of floods, that’s ever taken place here in
Pemberton,” Sturdy said of the July 25-27 music festival that brought 40,000
people to the valley.
Bourbonnais, standing with Sturdy in front of the audience,
acknowledged that there were several problems encountered during the festival
— and finances weren’t the least of them.
“We lost a lot of money,” he said. “We expected to lose money
and we lost a lot of money.
“We lost money because we didn’t have enough time to produce
the event. And when you get into problems producing an event, how do you fix a
problem? You throw money at it.”
When approached after the meeting, Bourbonnais would not say
how much money festival organizers Live Nation lost.
Responses to the festival ranged anywhere from outright praise
to reservations that not all parties were adequately consulted. Ruth Dick, a
councillor with the Mount Currie band of the Lil’wat Nation, told the meeting,
on her own behalf, that the presence of drugs and alcohol at the festival
should be addressed in discussions about a future event.
“I’m hearing stories about people draining their water bottles
and filling them with vodka right in the middle of town to bring to their
campsites,” she said. “We’ve banned… concerts in our community because of that
specific issue and it causes a real problem for our young people to go out and
get deeper into the drugs or alcohol.
“I’d like to know what’s being done regarding all the drugs and
alcohol.”
Bourbonnais responded immediately, saying that the presence of
drugs and alcohol ultimately comes down to security.
“The security didn’t do their job, it was a free for all,” he
said. “We’ve had conversations with Mount Currie and it’s been positive so
far.”
Dick then interjected as Bourbonnais spoke, saying that he had
only spoken with Daniel Sailland, the administrator of the Mount Currie band.
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