Rising concert spending across North America is encouraging Vancouver event producer brand.LIVE to forecast that its second annual Live in Squamish music festival will be twice as big as it was last year.
Landing global phone giant Virgin Mobile to be the title sponsor for the August 20 and 21 festival adds to brand.LIVE president Catherine Runnals’ optimism.
“We do a lot of large-scale public gatherings such as the Celebration of Light and Canada Day at Canada Place,” Runnals told Business in Vancouver. “Those are for clients. Live at Squamish is our own festival. It’s part of our growth plan as a company.”
Live music is proving to be a sustainable sector despite consumer concerns over the jittery economy.
The largest 100 North American concert tours combined to sell US$1.12 billion worth of tickets in 2011’s first half, according to trade publication Pollstar.
That’s up 16.2% compared with the same period last year. Ticket sales increased 5.3% while ticket prices rose 10.2% to US$67.02.
Runnals expects between 10,000 and 15,000 people to attend each of her festival’s two days.
Last year, 7,000 people attended the event, which many industry insiders doubted would happen.
Part of their skepticism stemmed from the debacle that followed Live Nation Canada’s successful 2008 Pemberton Festival, which featured acts such as Coldplay and Tom Petty.
A lengthy permit process with B.C.’s Agricultural Land Commission in 2009 left Pemberton Festival organizer Shane Bourbonnais unsure that he would have a site so he cancelled that year’s concert, promising that the festival would return in 2010.
Live Nation then blamed unsuccessful negotiations with local officials when it cancelled the 2010 festival.
Runnals’ festival is different from the one Live Nation staged because:
- it’s a relatively short 45-minute drive from downtown Vancouver;
- headline acts such as Weezer and Metric are more affordable; and
- tickets, at $89 for a day-pass, are 60% of what Live Nation charged.
Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is that the festival has buy-in from local officials.
“Squamish officials are complete partners, and we’ve been working with them in every stage of the process – from traffic plans to fire and police to make sure everything is safe,” said Jordan Melville, who is president of T&M Management Services Inc.
Melville’s father, George Melville, and well-known local investor Jim Treliving founded T&M. The two own stakes in Boston Pizza International and Mr. Lube as well as half of brand.LIVE.
The younger Melville told Business in Vancouver that brand.LIVE has a five-year lease on the current site in Squamish, which doubles as baseball fields much of the rest of the year.
“So, we will have a minimum of six Live at Squamish festivals,” he said.
Brand.LIVE’s business has been steady the past few years largely thanks to the 2010 Olympic Games, where work included:
- organizing initiatives such as Alberta House and a train to Whistler that were part of Alberta’s $7 million plan to woo visitors;
- building Holland’s Heinekin House; and
- designing and operating Vancouver House and organizing parties for Team Canada.
This is the second year that brand.LIVE has organized the Celebration of Light – a three-night fireworks festival with a $1.2 million budget, which does not include the hundreds of thousands of dollars the City of Vancouver spends on police and sanitation.
Runnals oversaw spending on everything from pyrotechnics, sound, lights, fencing, lifeguards and marketing among other expenses.
And while sponsors financed the lion’s share of the festival, she restarted selling tickets on bleachers to raise about $30,000.
With that festival now history, her attention has turned to the next large Vancouver spectacle: the November 24-27 2011 Grey Cup.
“We produced the street festival and other events [at Vancouver’s Grey Cup] in 2005,” Runnals said, “so we’re back this year working with Scott Ackles and his team to produce the street festival, the player awards, the gala and we’ll also be doing the Molson headquarters, which is their big beer garden.”