EDITOR,
In 2012, I followed a truck of stage decks to Brennan Park, and introduced myself to the Live@Squamish site manager as “a Squamish local looking for work.” He redirected me to ‘KIAN’ and I joined their first on-site crew. An exhausting week later, they offered me work at “Voices in the Park.” On the last day, the same site manager said, “Chris, I’ve been watching and you’re always picking up or carrying something, but I’ve never heard you talking. Some here can’t seem to shut up! I want you on my team and I have one more day of work.” It was a memorable day in Sarah Mclachlan’s garden removing some staging and rebuilding a monkey gym with her children’s direction. The highlight was personally thanking her for a “totally amazing concert.” A good start to my new career at the age of 50!
Some observations:
While packing up SVMF stages last year, I noticed volunteers wandering around in a daze, picking up a bit of litter here, another there, then stopping to chat, etc. I heard of online criticism of the cleanup. A timely cleanup was planned, but many of those who accepted hundreds of dollars worth of festival passes, either didn’t show or couldn’t manage to form a line across the windward end of the field and move to the other, leaving nothing behind. After two days, the organizers finished the job by busing a “professional” crew up from Vancouver. This year there are far less volunteer opportunities with the associated free tickets as there might have been.
The “Spartan Race,” hosted all over North America, will not return to Squamish as originally envisioned in 2012. Apparently the “nit-picky attitude of District staff” on cleanup issues, which should have been avoided with better communication during planning and setup, created extra costs that producer had never incurred at any other location.
Six years ago Live Nation produced the Pemberton Festival. I recall the local attitude was, “It’s a big deal by a producer with deep pockets and we’re going to charge large!” That producer never returned, stating that some of their costs were the highest of any festival they had ever produced anywhere in the world. Pemberton has since spent the last five years trying to get someone else to attempt to do business with them. I hope they succeed this time and I hope to be involved.
Anyone interested in the challenges of putting on a large multi-day festival should read The Road to Woodstock by Michael Lang.
The Squamish Valley Music Festival is one of the few bright spots on the local economic calendar. Brand.Live is a very experienced event producer with a three-year commitment to this location, but no guarantee of permanency. Other communities, recognizing the economic benefits, might try to offer future incentives to re-brand as, for example: “The Fraser Valley Music Festival.” Let’s not give them a chance.
Let’s show everyone this community can host a really great festival!
Chris Manuel
Squamish
