A lot of people have a lot of opinions on how to fix Summer In The Park, but only a handful showed up at City Hall last night to express themselves.
Despite that, Chairman John Strang says he is impressed by those that made the effort to show up. (See our photo gallery)
"They were all very passionate about the event and the ideas they had. There may have been some people that were at other events, the Battalion game in particular. It was cold out, and typical of a lot of Canadians, myself included, it's a lot easier to complain about something than actually go out and do it."
The main message the committee heard was, "more local".
"More community involvement, whether it's from the arts side of things or from the entertainment side of things. Those are great suggestions."
A third night of entertainment had already been added for next summer's event, and it will contain local acts, perhaps from across the north.
"That hasn't been determined," Strang told BayToday,"but there will definitely be a North Bay flavour to it with the possibility of stuff from the north as well."
But new, fresh ideas from the audience of 20 people didn't really surface at last night's meeting that was designed to get the public's input and explain some of the workings of the committee.
"Not specifically, a lot of the stuff that we'd heard before has either been tried before or it's not practical, but the main thing was the local arts community was very vocal in the fact that they haven't been reached out to before, and we want to incorporate them so we're in the process of identifying a person from their community to join us at our table and help bring them into Summer in the Park."
The event's budget for next year is about $210,000 for three nights of entertainment, with the total budget in the neighbourhood of $450,000.
"Some people come at it from a purely passionate place with no idea what the costs involved are. It's easy to say that the festival should be free, but how do you pay for it? Those are the things that sometimes escape people. They don't understand the actual hard costs of having security, or Port-a-Johns, all those things that are required when you host the number of people we host."
Strang says the committee has already made an effort to sign a headline band.
"We are out with an offer to one performer right now that I would consider probably, if we sign this act, it will be our main headliner, but it's a process now.
"It depends on whether they want to come here. This act is apparently going on tour so it's a matter of waiting for their response to our offer."
