New Tour Date Possibility - Canadian Music Festival

Organizer of Pemberton event ‘confident’; Petty, Coldplay among possible acts for ’08

By Reporter
Jennifer Miller
jmiller@whistlerquestion.com

Shane Bourbonnais is keeping his calendar clear for the end of July because there’s a good chance he’ll be hosting musicians such as Tom Petty and members of Coldplay in Pemberton during a three-day music festival.

Bourbonnais is president of touring and business development for Live Nation, the largest producer of concerts worldwide, and every year in July he takes a fishing trip to Langara Island. But as of Monday (Feb. 25) he hadn’t sent his registration in for the 2008 trip because — pending one key approval — he’ll likely be busy during that time with a European-style music festival in his hometown of Pemberton.

“I feel confident that we’re going to get the news we’re looking for and build an incredible event,” Bourbonnais said. “We’ve just got this one last approval that we need and if that one comes favourably we’ll be coming to Pemberton… this summer.”

Next week, Bourbonnais will attend a meeting to discuss the final approval needed to announce firm dates and a location for a festival this summer, and Bourbonnais said he hopes to be able to make an announcement in the next two weeks that the festival is a go.

He declined to provide specific information about the approval that’s needed.

“We’re starting to plan that we’re producing the festival,” he said. “It will be incredible.”
When the potential for a music festival in Pemberton was first made public last October, Coldplay was named as a possible headliner. Bourbonnais said this week that Coldplay is “still online” and Tom Petty is seriously considering coming.

“Hopefully he’s still available when we get the approval,” he said. “But we feel good that even if it’s not those acts, we’ll have big enough acts.”

He said summer 2008 is set to be one of the best seasons in the past five years for big-name bands and artists that are planning tours.

Live Nation is looking to put together a three-day European-style music festival complete with on-site camping, multiple stages, vendors, concessions and “a real, true festival spirit,” Bourbonnais said.

If the key approval comes through, there is still a lot of work to do to make the festival a reality this year. Multiple permits must be received and further dialogue must take place with the Ministry of Transportation on highway travel to and from the festival.

But Bourbonnais said he’s not worried about not having enough time to organize something for this July and that many of the permit processes were initiated as early as last November.

He also said all the bodies Live Nation is working with — RCMP, Squamish Lillooet Regional District, Village of Pemberton, Pemberton Chamber of Commerce and others — have been helpful and cooperative so far. The support from the Pemberton community in general has been “incredible,” he said.

While a festival in 2008 looks promising, Bourbonnais said if something happens to delay the plans, Live Nation will likely continue to pursue a large-scale festival in Pemberton in 2009.
“If there’s a problem, we have all the infrastructure built for ’09,” he said.

Back in October Bourbonnais told The Question that Live Nation was also considering a couple of alternate locations in eastern Canada for a multi-day festival.

He said this week that while the other locations are technically still in the running the necessary support and approvals aren’t falling into place as smoothly as they are in Pemberton.

“We’re heavily favouring the Pemberton site for sure,” Bourbonnais said. “The community has been incredible."