With a little over 11 weeks remaining before the 8-day, $4.3-million 'Stars and Thunder' festival, there are several logistical issues still to be tackled. One of them is accommodations, but Mayor Steve Black remains confident there will be no major hiccups.
On Monday night the green light was given to a temporary zoning bylaw amendment for Eastview RV located at 3449 Highway 101 West, to provide RV camping for festival visitors. The amendment will run from June 15 to July 8.
The approval comes on the heels of a formal application withdrawal from Northern College for a similar zoning bylaw amendment which would have had RVs use the west parking lot of the Porcupine campus. It was met with plenty of criticism from the public, especially since the festival website was advertising and booking the site before it had gone through formal council approval.
There hasn't been the same opposition to the far west end site, as Councillor Rick Dubeau summed up on Monday night.
"I'm all for this. This isn't in a residential area," he said.
Dubeau also approved of a statement made by Director of Community and Development Services Mark Jensen, who said "It's our understanding that the advertising has been removed from the website."
"I'm glad that its been removed from the city website," said Dubeau.
Eastview RV is a spacious property in the city's far west end, well away from both residential and commercial areasThere is $55,000 worth of accommodations being provided by local hotels for the festival, and they are all but certain to be packed to the gills with concert-goers come late June.
The festival's location provides unique logistical challenges. As a medium sized park in an urban environment, the idea of on or near-site camping was never a possibility. Campers and RVers will need to be shuttle bussed to Hollinger Park before and after each day's events from various sites on the edges of the city.
TimminsToday asked Black if there had been any consultation with other communities who host major music festivals, as to how they deal with the influx of visitors.
"There's so many different ways. There's one community in Quebec who puts a temporary exemption to their zoning bylaw, that allows people to come in and camp on anyone's property because there's so many people that come in for the festival. They've seen over the years that people were using their backyards, and sometimes their front yards for camping, and RV parking, and whatnot, that they just exempt the majority of the community from the zoning so that the people can come in. They accept the benefit that festivals like this have, the profit to the business community, the profits to the accommodation and service community, and they feel its worth it. The community has embraced their festival to the point where it says 'You know what, we're willing to put up with a week of discomfort, people parking in places that we're not used to, but we'll put up with it to have the great event and attract that many people to our community," said Black.
He was likely referring to Montebello, Quebec, whose tiny community hosts 'Rockfest' every summer. Local homeowners have been known to offer their yards as campsites, provide showering facilities for small, under-the-table fees, and the town even lifts a bylaw and allows the consumption of alcohol anywhere on public property during the festival.
"There's others that don't make any accommodations, and may already have an ample supply of hotels. When you're in the GTA area, there's hotels all over the place, and in the neighbouring communities, which are still only half an hour away. So they may not need to do anything like this and they have that capacity on site. It really varies from community to community, depending on what the volume and capacity is to accommodate the visitors, and what's required going forward."
There have been inquiries and discussions concerning the possibility of local residents opening up their properties to campers and RVs which would allow them to stay within the city's core, but it seems unlikely at this point, at least from an official city perspective.
"We haven't discussed any such exemption to allow it community wide. We're comfortable with the partners we have that they'll be able to accommodate those that need camping for the festival," said Black.
The Stars and Thunder festival kicks off on June 24, St. Jean Baptiste Day.
