Umbrellas Rock the Bay

It was Umbrella Village on the grass at the North Rocks the Bay concert stage Friday as thousands of fans weathered the storm to see two of Canada’s best music entertainment groups.

“We took all precautions we did see that the storm was heading close,” says my staff is fully prepared to handle any sort of issues that might fall their way,” Nilo Grabar, North Rocks the Bay Concert Promoter

“But none the less the thunder and the lightning left us early in the day and it was a factor but then again the diehard fans are coming out.”

Grabar says outdoor concert promoting is tricky because Mother Nature is so unpredictable, however, put forth a good product like Doc Walker and Blue Rodeo and the audience will come.

“If you look at the headlining acts that we have selected for this show with the number of people that pre-purchased passes, surprisingly enough today there was a number of people that purchased at the gates coming out here and it’s pouring rain to see the bands,” he says.

“So it is very important to select the proper bands and you will get that draw that you’re looking for.”

For Grabar and partner Jay Soppet, who hail from the Hamilton area, taking on the long weekend concert series was a true gamble as the duo stands to lose a great deal of money, but Grabar says the community made a good case.

“Doing a little bit of research on the Heritage Festival and what it meant to a lot of people, the music factor, and just looking around and talking with people and how much they missed that last year and it not being around gave me some incentive to bring this back to North Bay,” he tells BayToday.

Grabar says the model was there but he did want to his own little twist on the event and make it a party type of atmosphere and make it a joyful event.

“Lots of research went into seeing if this was going to be that area that we would like to do it at, and once again we were just looking back on how the music had affected the area and how big it is and that just drew us to come here and take that risk,” he says.

“Naturally it came down to going around and talking to people and seeing how much people wanted this and it gave us the incentive to take this risk in North Bay.”

The concert series continues today and Sunday:

Saturday August 2
12:30pm Music Festival Gates Open
To Dj Indian And Dee Jay Frame – Beer Gardens
3:40pm Carousels

3:40pm Andy Brown
4:20pm Cody Allen
5:00pm Audio To Mute
6:00pm The Joys
7:15pm David Rotundo Band
8:30pm David Wilcox
10:00pm Colin James

Sunday August 3
12:30pm Music Festival Gates Open
To Dj Indian And Dee Jay Frame – Beer Gardens
5:00pm Carousels

4:30pm Mordecai
5:15pm Futures Past
6:15pm Channel One
7:30pm Flatlined
8:45pm The Johnstones
10:00pm Hedley

Tickets at the gates:

There will be full weekend passes and individual day passes located at the front gate entrance to the festival grounds. Day of show, Full weekend bracelets shall be $60.00 and individual day tickets shall be $30.00.

Entrance Into The Grounds:

No food, drinks, coolers, video cameras shall be permitted upon entering grounds. Lawn chairs shall be permitted, however, they will not be permitted into the beer gardens area.