27-Jul-08: Pemberton - Tickets, Preview, Meetups, Review/Photos

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[thanks Ami.Sanyal]

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B.C. music festival that attracted 40,000 fans may need new venue

 

 

VANCOUVER - The dust hasn't settled after all at the Pemberton music festival in British Columbia.

 

The Agricultural Land Commission says the festival, which featured headliners Coldplay, Jay-Z, Tom Petty and Nine Inch Nails and drew about 40,000 people to the area, is inappropriate for prime farmland and promoters should find a new venue if they want to repeat the event next year.

 

"The success in this case could further compromise the agricultural capability of the land," commission executive director Colin Fry said Tuesday.

 

Fry said the commission met March 12 to grudgingly approve the July 25-27 festival as "non-farm use" on 50 hectares of agricultural land for 2008 only.

 

Minutes from the meeting show the festival could be held "for this year, and this year only" and that further festivals would not be approved because "long term use of this site as a concert venue will debilitate this high quality agricultural land."

 

Issues include soil compaction, soil contamination, construction of permanent facilities such as roads and buildings and the potential for the event to expand in coming years.

 

The commission also expressed displeasure that organizers of the event did not file an application until Feb. 6, putting pressure on the commission to give approval with limited time to consider the issue.

 

Fry said the promoter has the legal right to reapply to the commission to hold the concert on the same site in 2009, but that "they do so in full knowledge of the decision made many months ago that the commission is not supportive of repeated, continued events on this site."

 

The festival was considered a success despite dusty conditions and long traffic lineups.

 

Shane Bourbonnais, president of touring and business development for concert promoters Live Nation Canada, said that if the ALC doesn't allow the use of this piece of land, the future of the festival will be in jeopardy.

 

"We have looked and looked and looked and we really think that this site . . . is the best possible site in Pemberton," he said.

 

He remains optimistic about the future of the festival.

 

"The landowners had a great time and they would love to have it back," he said, adding that they made more money in rental fees from Live Nation than they could have farming.

 

Besides, Bourbonnais said, the farmers on the land - the majority of which is owned by Ravens Crest Developments Ltd. - managed to get one hay crop harvested before the festival and may even get another out of the field before the end of the season.

 

Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy said the window is still open for the current site to be used, since a land-use application hasn't even been submitted to the ALC.

 

First, Sturdy said, the village will consult with residents and stakeholders about whether they want to hold the festival again. So far, he said, the response from locals has been "overwhelmingly positive."

 

Sturdy, who owns a farm not far from the festival site, said it could be frustrating if the ALC overrules the wishes of the community and Live Nation.

 

"Food production is by no means optimized in the Pemberton valley," he said, adding "there's no question" the land can be remediated after the festival.

 

"The grass is growing," he said. "In fact, if you drove by there today you'd be hard-pressed to know that a festival took place there a few weeks ago."

 

Asked how much of Pemberton is within the agricultural land reserve, Sturdy said: "The whole valley."

 

If forbidden from having the festival on ALR, Sturdy said Live Nation has one other option: heading up the highway to Mount Currie and the Lil'wat Nation's reserve land, which is outside of the ALC's jurisdiction.

 

The Vancouver Sun could not reach a Lil'wat spokesperson on Tuesday.

 

The 16th annual Merritt Mountain Music Festival took place in the B.C. Interior on agricultural land two weeks before the Pemberton Festival, raising the question of a double standard.

 

Fry said every application is considered on an individual basis, and that the Pemberton site "from a soils perspective is significantly better" than Merritt, B.C., a dry predominantly haying and ranchland grazing area.

 

"Merritt is proof the commission is prepared to look at these activities," he said.

 

The Pemberton site included 50 hectares of class one and class two farmland capable of growing a wide range of crops.

 

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=ccca9e70-5697-48fd-a96d-e89bc89b08e1

[Jenjie]

First post updated with videos. Have had a hunt round and found a few more tracks :D

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Excellent pics by Nilina hearts Rahm Emanuel