Blessed by sunny, warm weather and a versatile lineup, the Squamish Valley Music Festival (August 7 to 10) experienced more than double-growth attendance this year.
While final dollar figures won't be known for several weeks, revenue will vault over last year's event. But it takes money to make money, and the festival significantly increased expenses this year to lay the groundwork for future years.
The festival expanded its land base and put in more camping and parking spaces. It ran shuttle buses from Vancouver and Whistler, as well as from downtown Squamish and various area campsites. It employed 820 security and medical staff daily.
“We had a lot of startup costs this year,” said Paul Runnals, executive producer of the five-year-old festival. “Besides the [increased] campgrounds and parking, we did a lot of consulting over getting the right traffic plan, the right medical plan, and we purchased a lot of our infrastructure because it made more sense for us to own that equipment rather than rent it.”
The festival, which usually runs for three days – a Thursday-night campers-only opening night, then Friday and Saturday – expanded this year to include Sunday, when 34,000 attendees boosted total attendance to 105,000. Last year, attendance was 45,000. The TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival (June 20 to July 1) also increased attendance, attracting 566,400 people, up about 10,000 from 2013.
Though final dollar numbers are not yet public, the festival showed a slight profit, despite the fact that a major Orpheum show – The Chieftains with Ry Cooder – was cancelled prior to the event. The other Orpheum show, Bobby McFerrin, performed below expectations, but the Vogue concerts were well attended, and good weather for opening weekend brought record numbers to the two outdoor stages at Downtown Jazz, along with a boost in revenue from more vendors at the festival's outdoor shows. Coastal Jazz & Blues Society executive director Mike Forrester said the festival will explore expanding the program at Downtown Jazz, have a larger educational outreach program and consider returning to year-round concert productions and co-productions. The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (July 18 to 20) also lost a headliner when illness forced Joan Baez to pull out on the day before her Saturday-night show. That, along with grey, threatening skies, saw the festival attendance fall to less than 37,000, a 10% drop from 2013.
With the dip in attendance, revenue from alcohol sales, vendors and festival merchandise also took a hit.
“If the gate is down, there's a chain reaction, everything from food vendors to beer garden to raffle tickets,” said Linda Tanaka, artistic managing director of the folk festival.
The Baez cancellation did not result in refunds, because most people buy day or weekend passes and other acts took the headliner's place, but the walk-up crowd for Saturday night was down from previous years.
The 37-year-old festival, held annually at Jericho Beach, does provide shade and rain protection at some of its seven stages, but Tanaka said that, as a purely outdoor festival, it does not plan to erect venue tents on site.
“In the seven years that I've been here, it's really only poured heavily on one day.”
After nine years in Sturgeon County, Alberta, the Boonstock Music and Arts Festival (July 31 to August 3) moved to Penticton this summer, drawing 9,000 music fans each day, exceeding its target of 8,500.
The festival had to get by without beer garden revenue when the BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch denied the festival a liquor licence. Colin Kobza, president of Boonstock Productions, said in an email, “We are still waiting on final numbers from governing officials.”
