Squamish Valley Music Festival is getting recognition from across the Atlantic.
The three-day concert has caught the eyes of festival-goers in Europe after being nominated for “Best Overseas Festival” by the UK 2014 Festival Awards. This marks the second year in a row that Squamish is in the running for the top prize.
Organizers of the Squamish festival are “thrilled” to be among 30 nominated international music festivals chosen by the UK Festival’s Awards’ panel of judges, stated a press release from the organizers of the local event. The nomination places Squamish up with Coachella — a two-weekend festival held in Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert, U.S. — and Belgium’s TomorrowLand. This year approximately 400,000 people attended TomorrowLand and more than 500,000 people took in Coachella.
Squamish Valley Music Festival was tiny by comparison. The event drew an estimated 35,000 festival-goers between Aug. 8 to 10. That number was beefed up from 2013, when the event had the capacity of 19,000.
After this year’s Squamish Valley Music Festival, the event’s executive director Paul Runnals told The Squamish Chief that in 2015 organizers aim to increase the festival’s headcount by another 5,000 ticket holders.
According to an economic impact study done by the SVMF organizers, the festival generated $9.9 million in 2013 in economic spinoff in Squamish. All the festivals combined dating back to the first one in 2010 are estimated to have created a $16 million boost to the Squamish economy.
The study was done using the Festivals and Events Assessment Model created by the Conference Board of Canada. Last year the festival reportedly generated $18.7 million of economic activity in B.C.
Voting is open to the public until Monday, Oct. 27. Voters have a chance to win a pair of tickets to each of the winning festivals at the 2014 awards. To vote visit www.festivalawards.com/vote.
