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Pemberton Music Festival will return in 2014 with the lineup to be announced in January

A New Orleans-based promotion company will resurrect the one-time fest as an annual event
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pemby party The Flaming Lips were one of the major acts that played the 2008 Pemberton Festival. The event is back with new promoters for 2014. Photo by Andrew Mitchell

The 2014 Pemberton Music Festival will feature five to six stages, including one dedicated to comedy, HUKA Entertainment's A.J. Niland said during the event's surprise launch party on Wednesday night.

Five years after concert promoter Live Nation brought top-name headliners like Tom Petty, Jay Z and Coldplay to the valley, New Orleans-based HUKA announced Wednesday that it would be resurrecting the festival. It's slated to take place from July 18 to 20, 2014 with an initial batch of tickets on sale Sept. 27.

"Pemberton Valley is unrivaled as a music festival site," says Niland in a release. "Its spectacular location aligns perfectly with HUKA's philosophy of producing world-class events in unique settings."

HUKA held the launch party at the Pemberton Golf Course Wednesday night for the public after a media event that included a helicopter tour of their expanded concert site. Around 500 people attended a surprise show by Halifax electro-pop musician Rich Aucoin, who played half a set of songs by French electronic duo Daft Punk. Comedy crew The Trailer Park Boys also appeared via a video message to say they would be attending the festival next summer.

The company — which will host the event in conjunction with land partners Sunstone Group and the Lil'wat Nation — says the lineup won't be released until January, but adds it will be similar to that of the Hangout Festival, which they put on in Gulf Shores, Alabama, last May. That festival featured eclectic acts ranging from Stevie Wonder to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Bassnectar. "We cater to the iPod generation where playlists, not genres, dominate listening habits," says Niland. "Our vision for Pemberton Music Festival includes a wide spectrum of rock, indie, hip-hop, EDM, and more, anchored by top-level headliners."

In an interview Wednesday morning, Niland says his company was looking for a unique festival site in the Pacific Northwest when he was approached by local stakeholders with the Pemberton site, at the base of Mt. Currie. "I wasn't familiar with the (festival in) '08, but I did my research and saw the challenges," he says. "Once we determined we could solve all those problems we decided to move forward with the plans."

Niland brought a large crew of engineers, production and security people to do a "sanity check" and assess the site. "The first time that I have ever been north of Vancouver was about a year ago," he says. "As you leave North Vancouver it's one of the most beautiful drives you've ever seen. The closer we got to Whistler and Pemberton, I was blown away... When we drove up to Mt. Currie my jaw was on the floor. It's really unique to have a valley floor that flat and that large with those peaks. There was a tremendous amount of desire at that moment to make it work."

HUKA also intends to make the event annual and build it up to rival some of the best-known summer music festivals. "We want to make this an international festival," he says. "The site, the beauty and the lineup will hopefully dictate that. We're working very hard on delivering the lineup... We think after a few years we can achieve that. We really want this to be a beacon and a showcase for the area. This is an annual thing. We want to come year, after year, after year."

Talks have been underway to bring the one-time festival — which was on hiatus until it became "financially feasible" for Live Nation — back for the last several years. The 2008 festival drew around 40,000 people to the Pemberton Valley over three days and added an estimated $5 million to the local economy. One major issue at the time, though, was snarled traffic.

As Niland points out, since then, improvements have been made to the Sea to Sky highway for the 2010 Olympics. On top of that, the company has established a partnership with the Lil'wat Nation to double the size of the festival site and allow for on-site camping to help keep festivalgoers off the road. Shuttles will also take people from the site to Whistler and back.

"We attacked the problem with a multi-pronged approach to make sure we don't see any issues," he says.

Pemberton mayor and MLA for the area Jordan Sturdy says he anticipates there will be hiccups, but that lessons have been learned from the last festival. "Any time you bring that number of people into a valley like the one we live in, there will be challenges and complications," he says. "To think there will be no disruptions or impact would be a bit naïve. I think, overall, the Pemberton Festival in 2008 brought a focus to, and a recognition of, Pemberton that we had never seen before. It was very much a positive reflection on the community... We want a long-term event where there's a stake for the company, the landowner and the community to improve the event on an annual basis."

Speculation about whether a festival would return dates back to 2010 after the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Village of Pemberton and the Agricultural Land Commission to ensure the festival site would be restored for agricultural use.

At that time, only Live Nation had permission to hold a festival. Then in December of 2012, the ALC agreed that any event producer could host an event, which opened up the field to HUKA Entertainment.

Organizers are also working with Whistler Blackcomb and Tourism Whistler to arrange off-site hotel availability in Whistler. "We are all very excited to support this world-class music festival in 2014 and look forward to the tremendous energy and exposure it will bring," says Dave Brownlie, president and CEO of Whistler Blackcomb, in a release.

A limited number of "founder's program" tickets go on sale online at pembertonmusicfestival.com on Sept. 27 at 9 a.m. Those discounted passes will cost $189. Organizers say the lineup announcement will happen in the coming months.