After losing nearly $60,000 in 2017, the Summer in the Park committee could be looking to move the entire operation up Ferguson Street to a more weather-friendly locale.
There was a time when Memorial Gardens did host concerts, and twenty-some years ago, the spring midway was stationed in Thomson Park.
A report to Council that will be received at Tuesday’s regular meeting of the whole sheds light on the financial details of the summer festival held on the Civic Holiday weekend.
The report states that due to the poor weather, the committee is looking for ways to mitigate the effect that the elements have on the festival, and in particular, the concerts.
The report clarifies that the committee “is looking to weatherproof its event by situating the headline concerts in Memorial Gardens […] the daytime programming, including the midway, would need to be moved behind and beside the arena, in the parking lot, and Thomson Park.”
A loss of wristband sales is cited as a downfall to this change of location, and the report says that prices would be adjusted accordingly if the move away from the downtown and waterfront comes to fruition.
Despite the bottom-line losses, the festival has economic ancillary benefits. Hotel occupancy rates for 2017 were higher than 2016 as the Friday of the festival weekend saw a 96.1 per cent rate, compared to 93.8 per cent in 2016. The Saturday hotel occupancy rate this past summer climbed to 97.9 per cent, up from 95.8 per cent last summer.
The report states that beer garden sales dropped, as did overall wristband sales, of which there were 4,100 in 2017, down from just under 6,600 in 2016.
