Symphony of Sound may not Rock the Bay in 2010

Symphony of Sound likely not returning for summer 2010

Festival Chairman of North Bay’s Summer in the Park, Derek Shogren made a presentation to City Council at Monday Night’s regular meeting where he announced the festival had achieved a $100,000 surplus for the 2009 August long-weekend event. However, it wasn’t until he was question by Councilor, Dave Mendicino that the real picture became clear.

Even though it was an overall success, the North Rocks the Bay portion of the weekend – which is put on by Symphony of Sound – is where things were really lacking, and it became evident that things just weren’t right.

Shogren reported that Symphony of Sound ran a deficit for the weekend of concerts; which included “Sam Roberts Band”, “Simple Plan” and main headliners “The Tragically Hip” (pictured). He stated that Simple Plan only drew roughly 3,500 in attendance while The Hip, as they are more commonly referred to, drew 5,000.

Symphony of sound doesn’t have much longer to declare whether they’ll be returning for August 2010.

“From what I understand, the private operator (Symphony of Sound) has until November 1st to give indication to provide financials from last year as to whether or not they’re going to come back,” Shogren explained.

Coincidentally, the first planning meeting for Summer in the Park 2010 is November 1st, because if Symphony of Sound decides they will not be participating, the planning committee can go ahead and arrange for different entertainment this summer; whether it is another concert promoter or something completely different altogether.

“It may not be bands in the nature of ‘The Tragically Hip’, but prices wouldn’t be 80 dollars either,” Shogren admitted.

Shogren said he can’t imagine why the festival was not a success.

“When you get 5,000 (fans) for a band like ‘The Tragically Hip’, who’ve sold out (almost) every concert they’ve held in Ontario – that’s a disappointment,” Shogren said. “Maybe North Bay doesn’t want concerts.”

At 80 dollars for a weekend pass, Shogren believes maybe the “Case of beer” town that is North Bay wasn’t prepared to shell out that kind of cash.

“From a marketing point of view; from a price point of view, people just seem reluctant to buy the ticket. They talked about it, but when it came time to actually getting that 80 dollars cash out for three days of entertainment they just didn’t do it,” Shorgen explained looking visibly frustrated.

Mayor Vic Fedeli echoed the same sentiments of discontent.

“I think the fact that it was a poor attendance for Simple Plan, and for the Tragically Hip I think that’s unfortunate,” Fedeli said. “That private operator (Symphony of Sound) went to great lengths to bring in World Class acts to North Bay for the first time in years, and I think what you can tell from the amount of people who attended that it was disappointing.”