Organizers seek approval for new music festival in Cavendish
The Cavendish Beach Music Festival sees about 25,000 attendees each year - it’s a signature event on the island. Now the group behind it is hoping to add another.
Organizers pitched their food, drink, and rock-leaning music festival to about 100 locals in Cavendish, P.E.I., Monday evening.
While most of those in attendance agreed the event was a good idea, many questioned the planned dates, the weekend after the popular country music festival.
“We’re just not pro this concert during our peak season months,” said Adam Lowther, general manager of Fairways Cottages. “From July 1 to Sept. 4 we’ve had a committed, loyal, high-yielding demographic in families that has been steadily growing for 20 years now.”
Lowther said mixing 20-something festival goers with 30-something parents with kids doesn’t work well for accommodations, because the two groups are looking for very different experiences.
Whitecap Entertainment, which owns the festival, said the event is being designed to tap into an older demographic – the 30 plus crowd.
“Branding, the pricing, everything to do with this festival is aimed at an older clientele. We’re hopeful we can push that age up,” said Ben Murphy, Whitecap Entertainment CEO. “Will there be people under 25 there? Absolutely, but that won’t be the main target market.”
Murphy also said they are open to changing the date on subsequent years, but this year’s timing is to accommodate the acts they’ve booked, which have yet to be announced.
“As much as I would love to think, these world-class artist and chefs that we’re trying to get here, we get to pick the exact date they want to come,” said Murphy. “We have to be a little flexible.”
Many in the community are calling for the festival to be moved to the shoulder season, after kids have returned to school.
“We need to look at ways to diversify a product in all seasons,” said Lowther. “I think this event aligns really well with our off season.”
Lowther said that way tourism operators can take advantage of the festival, without pushing out the long-term customers the region has spent years cultivating.
Municipal council is set to decide if the festival will go ahead by the end of the month.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.