Blues Festival may have set record

Ticket sales are up
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby Now assistant editor
Published July 30, 2003


Attendance was up for the fourth annual Burnaby Blues Festival, but exactly how many people showed up for this year's event won't be known for at least a few more days.

"The trend is looking good," declared John Orysik, media director for the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society. "We had great performances, there was great weather and the food was out of sight."

While Orysik estimated the attendance to be around the 3,500 mark, that was decidedly higher than the guesstimate provided by Ian Forsyth, the cultural programs co-ordinator at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts.

"We didn't set a record, but we were considerably better than last year," Forsyth said Monday. "So far, the box office is up considerably from last year. There seemed to be a lot more people in the beer garden and the merchandising did a booming business."

Forsyth said his preliminary numbers indicate that about 2,000 tickets were sold for the day-long festival that featured Canadian blues rocker Remy Shand, Wide Mouth Mason, Shemekia Copeland, Big Jack Johnson and the Oilers and others.

While the numbers appear to be headed in the right direction, Forsyth said city hall won't stop promoting the event until they reach their target mark of 5,000 fans.

"I'd like to have 5,000 people there. That's certainly where we're building up to and that's where the festival needs to be," he said Monday.

One of the greatest indicators that the numbers are on track is the fact that the free Vancouver Symphony orchestra concert in the park on the night before the blues festival drew 11,000 attendees this year.

"I know free is good, but the Burnaby Blues Festival has six bands and six shows for the cost of one concert at the Commodore," he said.

Forsyth said city hall was more than satisfied with the local media coverage leading up to the event, but planners had a tough time trying to attract attention from major media outlets for a festival that conflicts with other large scale events such as the Molson Indy races, the Mission Folk Music festival and the Illuminairies Festival in Vancouver.

"This really is a regional event, and it has to get out there and draw from the two million people who live in the Lower Mainland," he said. "It's hard trying to elbow out those other events. That's always going to be the challenge."

To help fine tune the marketing strategy, a total of eight polling kiosks were set up inside the Deer Lake amphitheater during this year's event to ask patrons 105 questions about what they liked best about the festival, how they heard about the event, and if there is anything different they would like to see added.

Forsyth said those questionnaires will be studied over the next several months to help shape future Burnaby Blues Festivals.

And Orysik agrees that the festival is on track for success.

"The site looked marvelous and everything was decked out," he said. "There was a real sense of community spirit out there, and I think all these things together are contributing to a real memorable cultural experience."