This summer’s Squamish Valley Music Festival was bigger and better received than ever, according to a presentation to council on Tuesday.
Attendance over the four-day weekend was up to 116,579 scans registered compared with 105,000 in 2014, Vanessa Carrington, film and event manager for the district, told the committee of the whole.
About 2,500 staff were onsite each day as well, Carrington said.
The opening Thursday saw more than 18,000 people pass through the festival gates, and that pushed the attendance higher overall, said brand.LIVE’s Paul Runnals, the executive producer of the event.
“We had significantly higher attendance this Thursday than we did last year, largely due to locals,” he said.
To relieve lineups, some local residents were allowed in without scanning, Runnals said, adding the number of Squamish residents interested in coming caught organizers by surprise.
Runnals said he would ideally like to grow the event to 40,000 festivalgoers per day, but growth will depend on how things go with liquor licensing.
“We certainly intend to explore what next year’s licensing might look like and whether or not it is full site, which would be our preference,” he said. “If we go after and seek and get the approval to increase by 5,000 people, I wouldn’t want that to have a negative impact on liquor licensing.”
The event spending had a $15 million impact on Squamish due to spending both by the producers and attendees; that’s 104 per cent higher than the amount spent in 2013, the last time an economic study was done on the festival, Carrington said.
On average people stayed 3.8 nights, according to the report submitted to council, which is up almost 41 per cent over 2013.
Moving the medical centre to inside Brennan Park recreation centre was more efficient, Carrington said.
There were 15 per cent fewer medical incidents this year compared with 2014, according to the presenters. Three of the 10 transfers to hospital were serious, but most were scrapes and bruises or other minor injuries.
Illegal camping was also reduced this year, Carrington said.
“Overall, all agencies were incredibly happy with the low amount of impact on wildlife,” she said.
Event producers hired a new specialized security team to roam near the rivers during the day, educating the public and moving people out when needed, Carrington said.
“I would say because of this team is why we saw a much lower impact on our rivers and on impact on our wildlife.”
Dealing with garbage was top of mind for organizers of this year’s festival, Runnals said.
“We were incentivizing people through VIP upgrades and a chance to win tickets for next year’s festival,” he said. “It made a huge difference.”
About $15,000 was raised through recyclables for local groups including Squamish Youth Soccer Association, compared with $9,000 raised last year.
Overall, waste diversion was down over last year, however.
The goal was 50 per cent waste diversion, but the festival diverted 34 per cent of its waste, down from last year, when 34.9 per cent of waste was diverted.
Composting in particular was down, with 2.8 per cent composted compared with 8.2 per cent in 2014. In the future, catering services, merchants and sponsors will be encouraged to do more composting, the report said.
Traffic logistics were much improved this year, “however, we do need to focus on high-traffic intersections,” Carrington said.
Goals for 2016 include decrease in waste, improved parking and traffic management and camping intake and outtake, Carrington said.
Councillor Ted Prior’s praise for the festival summed up what most on the council said of the event. “This is quite a collaboration and I think that everybody is doing such a great job,” he said. “It is certainly something to be proud of for Squamish.”
Runnals said the festival lineup for 2016 will be announced in January.
