Following a public presentation and in camera session with Keynon Ternovoy during last week’s regular council meeting, St. Paul town council approved a motion to enter into contract negotiations with Troubador Event Management for the Centerfield Music Festival, to beheld on June 15 and 16, 2018.
Council also directed administration to bring forward the agreement to council, for further consideration. Ternovoy is the event co-producer with Centerfield Music Festival.
He began last Tuesday’s presentation by speaking about the music festival, which has been growing since the first one-day event took place in 2016, which was then called the Brett Kissel Hometown Homecoming.
“It went crazy good,” said Ternovoy.
In 2017, the event grew to two days, and was again seen as a success, drawing people from St. Paul, but also from beyond the area. According to statistics presented by Ternovoy, 52 per cent of ticket purchases were made by St. Paul residents, while 21 per cent were purchased by surrounding communities within an hour drive, and 26 per cent were purchased by people who had to travel to the area.
“It’s always been our view and hope to build a centerpiece that the town can be proud of. That everyone can be proud of,” said Ternovoy.
In 2016, the event also included the creation of the Brett Kissel: Home Movie, which later aired on CMT. In 2017, the music program won a Canadian Country Music Award for County Music program or special of the year, said Ternovoy.
He added that his vision for Centerfield is to create “the best damn big little festival in Canada.”
When speaking about the date staying similar to the past two year, Ternovoy said he felt doing the event in mid-June allows for it to act as a sort of kick-off to summer for the area, which compliments the fact that the Lakeland Rodeo Association Finals are held over Labour Day long weekend, and act as a close to the summer months.
Ternovoy also spoke about economic spin-offs that he believes the community sees from hosting the music festival, noting that his third main priority with the festival is to source out as much benefit for St. Paul as he can, which also includes support for non-profit organizations.
He estimated that $158/person is spent per day by those coming into town for the festival. Local spending at hotels, restaurants, fuel, and other items are accounted for in that number.
Ternovoy noted that the $158 number was a rough estimate, adding, that “Without a shadow of a doubt, there’s an economic benefit. We just don’t know what it is.”
He later added that his first priority with the festival is to host a good, safe show; and his second priority was to continue to make is accessible to families and locals to attend.
When speaking on the 2017 two-day event, Ternovoy pointed to the weather as being an obstacle, with weeks of wet weather being seen leading up to the event. But, somehow, aside from about one hour, the event saw very decent weather/
This lead into a conversation about the event location – the Jaycee ball diamond. Drainage and water retention, disruption of normal ball scheduling, and routing traffic off main street in the area over the course of the festival were brought up as challenges that have been seen, according to Ternovoy’s presentation.
He explained that organizers tried to mitigate the effects to the ball diamond, but some human error did results in some “pretty big ruts” being made in one area. Ternovoy added that considering the wet weather, he felt overall, the ball diamond was left in fairly good shape.
The Centerfield Music Festival was also only one of three events held on the diamond within a few weeks in 2017, with Canada 150 events also taking place on the diamond, and reconciliation events also being held in the same location.
Ternovoy noted that by planning ahead, he was hopeful some of these challenges could be overcome.
“I don’t want to see anything bad happen to that diamond. I played on it,” he said. When speaking of the ruts and damage, he noted that he didn’t want one negative event to mitigate an overall positive thing.
Another mistake Ternovoy spoke on was the lack of food at last year’s festival. In future years, event planners are hoping to create a market village, showcasing local food and merchandise vendors, adding to the “festival feel.”
Ternovoy also spoke about increasing the area that the festival uses, and increasing ticket sales to 4,500, while still focusing on making it an event that everyone can attend.
Ticket prices for 2018 are currently pegged at $92.99 for a two-day pass, although that number is not set in stone. He added that organizers have been operating under the premise that the town wants the music festival back.
Town Coun. Brad Eamon asked Ternovoy if the event had ever considered any other venues, other than Jaycee, with Ternovoy responding that they had looked at using the other ball diamonds, near the swimming pool, but it would require taking fences down. That location would give the event more space to operate, while keeping the same atmosphere.
Coun. Gary Ward noted that he felt taking down fences and using the smaller ball diamonds would be more work for the town, and it was also noted that it would likely affect a lot more of the regular baseball schedule.
Coun. Nathan Taylor said he had heard complaints regarding the noise from the festival. Ternovoy responded saying he would like to work with residents, if it is an issue, and look at how other communities deal with similar situations. He noted that he knew of a case in Edmonton where area residents receive free tickets to attend an event that takes place in their neighbourhood.
Following Ternovoy’s presentation, council approved a motion to move In Camera, with the agenda citing Section 16 FOIP: Third Party Business Interest. Ternovoy stayed to discuss the festival further.
Following the in camera discussion, Coun. Norm Noel made the motion to enter into contract negotiations with Troubador Event Management.
