1990s grunge rockers Pearl Jam are among the headliners at this year’s Pemberton Music Festival.Tim Fraser/The Globe and Mail
The Pemberton Music Festival has announced its 2016 lineup – and it's heavy on nostalgia, with 1990s grunge rockers Pearl Jam headlining and acts such as Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and Billy Idol on the roster.
Other acts coming to the festival this summer include J. Cole, Kaskade, Wiz Khalifa, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Die Antwoord, Wolf Parade, Purity Ring and Arkells. Cheech and Chong will appear on the comedy stage, as well as Craig Robinson (The Office) & the Nasty Delicious, Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson and Maria Bamford.
"We want to make sure there's something for everybody," Huka Entertainment CEO Evan Harrison told The Globe and Mail when asked about the festival's vintage content. "The truth of the matter is it just really depends what's available in the marketplace and routing plays a huge role as well; who's available that time of year, those dates."
Huka, the concert promoter, is promising tweaks to the festival this year in response to feedback from past attendees. That includes separating the campgrounds into "energetic" (read: partying welcome) and "more relaxing" (read: quiet); a streamlined entrance and exit; and the introduction of a new "camping ambassador" program. The ambassadors will help campers set up, they'll provide information and hand out garbage bags.
Last year, photos of the site littered with garbage received a fair bit of online attention – but as Mr. Harrison points out, that is a common problem for music festivals.
"Any time you have that many people tired, loading out, unfortunately some trash is left behind. We're cleaning throughout the whole festival," he said. "We're leaving it pristine."
He pointed out that the festival has evolved significantly since the first incarnation in 2008 – before Huka was involved. The inaugural event, produced by Live Nation, was plagued with a freakishly dusty environment, terrible traffic snarls and other logistical problems. Huka, which is based in New Orleans, relaunched the festival in 2014.
"The first year [2014] was really about proving that we could fix those logistical issues and we did," Mr. Harrison said.
As a result, he says, attendance nearly doubled last year – to 115,000. Mr. Harrison expects year-over-year growth of 40 per cent to 50 per cent this summer. He says by the end of the 2016 festival, the local economic impact should reach $200-million.
It's a difficult time for music festivals, with a number of cancellations announced even just last month, including the Squamish Valley Music Festival further south along the Sea to Sky Highway.
When asked if the loss of the Squamish Festival would be Pemberton's gain, Mr. Harrison wouldn't answer the question directly, but said Huka has carved a niche for itself by holding festivals in underserved, destination locations.
"The choices for music fans over the last decade have increased in a very, very meaningful way, with new and different ways and more ways to enjoy live music. So with that, it's very natural that some festivals will start to fall away. And you've seen lots of festivals cancel over the course of the last six months in North America," he said. "Some festivals have really strong lineups [and] still cancelled; they just couldn't cut through the clutter and get to the volume they needed to right out of the gate."
There was much speculation that the low Canadian dollar was a factor in the Squamish festival's demise. Mr. Harrison says the exchange rate is an issue for Pemberton as well, but the festival's growth has eased some of that burden.
"There's a volume play there; once we get to a certain math, there's economies of scale. But there's no denying the fact that a fluctuating dollar is a challenge for everybody," he said. "The bigger thing is the saturation of the market, artists' fees have increased and there's more and more competition; there's more choice for fans, which means more competition for promoters, which adds to the complexity of the already challenging marketplace."
This year's Pemberton Festival runs July 14-17. General admission tickets go on sale this Friday.
Marsha Lederman