Right fit, wrong date, residents tell promoters of 2nd Cavendish music festival

Plans for a second Cavendish concert weekend in July received a rocky reception Monday night in North Rustico.

More than 100 people packed into the North Rustico Lion's Club, on P.E.I.'s North Shore, for a public meeting on the plans.

Whitecap Entertainment would like to launch the Sommo Festival, a two-day rock concert and culinary festival modelled after the BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley, California.

The festival would be held July 14-15.

But that means back-to-back concert weekends in the resort municipality with the Cavendish Beach Music Festival, which will be held July 6-8.

'It's not going work'

Sandi Lowther, who operates Fairway Cottages, said she's already had cancellations from families who don't want to stay in Cavendish if a rock concert is going to be held that weekend. She's not against the concert, but she doesn't believe the second weekend of July is a good idea, a sentiment echoed by many at the meeting.

"We don't not support a second festival," said Lowther.

"We truly support further use of that events ground, it's beautiful, but we absolutely, adamantly oppose anything that disrupts the week-long family stays. We wish you all the best with the Sommo Festival and I'm telling you it's not going work in the middle of July, but it sure will work the end of August, into September."

Whitecap has several acts booked for that weekend, but has not released the names of the acts.

Sarah Bell, a resident of Hope River, said she welcomes the new festival.

"I'm in favour of the Sommo music festival," said Bell.

"I want my daughter to be in a place with lots of culture around her and opportunity around her, I want her to be able to volunteer, to have a job. The infrastructure is there, there's no reason why we're not using it."

Dozens of letters were read from residents and businesses owners. Most were in favour of the event, however, a number of people did raise issue with the dates, including Phyllis Carr of Carr's Oyster Bar in Stanley Bridge.

Carr said she loses business during the Cavendish Beach Music Festival and she worries the same will happen with this new festival.

"The family market — which is the backbone, I think, of our area from the second week of July to the last week of August — it's our only time for family market." said Carr.

"It would be great to have this one, because I'm all about food and music, but I just don't think the date's the right time.  I really think it's going to hurt us."

Dan James, who operates Kindred Spirits Inn & Cottages, which is near the concert site, said he's been able to adjust to the challenges of the Cavendish Beach Music Festival.

But he said people have already booked for the second weekend in July, and are not expecting to be staying next to a rock concert.

"Having the mix of non-concert-goers and concert-goers is like an accommodation's providers worst nightmare," said James.

"The first few years of the festival I gave more refunds to both festival-goers and non-festival-goers because they just didn't get along."

James said there is little upside of the second festival that weekend.

"There's no upside for my business at all to have a festival on July 14, 15 this year at all. I'm booked solid that weekend."

Challenging to book acts

Ben Murphy, CEO of Whitecap Entertainment, said he hopes the Resort Municipality will give his company the green light.

He would like to get the festival up and running this year, on the dates the acts are available, and then look at moving the concert to a more favourable date next year.

"It is challenging to get these world class artists to come to a festival that does not exist, with no branding, no website, to an Island on the East Coast of Canada, which they may or may not have heard of," said Murphy.

"We had to be flexible in our dates. We were originally talking about September."

The concert is expected to attract 10,000 to 15,000 people, much less than the 25,000 plus that attends the country festival.

"We can attempt to limit the community impact for some of the people that were against it," said Murphy.

"The people that spoke highly of it, they see the benefit and they see it as a long-term goal. There might be some short-term pains, which I fully appreciate but hopefully we can sit here in five or 10 years and we have another Cavendish Beach."

The Resort Municipality's planning board meets Feb. 22. It will make a recommendation to council, which is expected to vote on the concert Feb. 27.

Matthew Jelley, mayor of the resort municipality, said there is going to be a lot for council to weigh before it can make its decision.