VANCOUVER - Virgin Festival organizers are promising a successful event in Calgary this month despite a series of problems that have plagued the festival in other Canadian cities.
Two years after Sir Richard Branson, eccentric billionaire and Virgin Group founder, launched the inaugural Canadian Virgin Festival in Toronto, Calgary is set to host its first V-Fest on June 21-22 with headliners Stone Temple Pilots and the Tragically Hip.
But what was to have been Virgin's second Vancouver V-Fest went out with a whimper earlier this year when organizers pulled the plug, saying they couldn't secure top acts to anchor the two-day 2008 outdoor festival.
That was despite a glut of artists passing through Vancouver this summer, fuelled by a decline in CD sales and an increasing reliance on touring to pay the bills.
"You'll be hard pressed to see another year like this," says Andrew Bridge, director of Virgin Festivals in Canada, of a summer touring season that includes rock stalwarts such as R.E.M., Radiohead, Jack Johnson, Judas Priest and Oasis.
But that sort of saturated market, along with conflicting schedules and creative differences, meant organizers couldn't land the acts they needed for Vancouver, Bridge says.
These two-day rock festivals, which are typically accompanied by hour-long sets by dozens of bands with local art vendors and goofy events in sun-drenched fields, are all about finding the right mix of talent and venue, he says.
All of the "magic pieces of the puzzle" came together in Calgary, Bridge says.
"When we looked at all the markets in Canada, we saw this market that has the highest percentage of youth, we found a great venue in Fort Calgary, and we had some artists who were interested in performing in the market," Bridge says.
"We decided to say goodbye to Vancouver this year with the hopes that we'll be back next year."
Two names they wanted on the bill - Radiohead and Jack Johnson - have already sold out their own shows in Vancouver's Thunderbird Stadium at the University of British Columbia.
Aaron Brophy, managing editor of Chart music magazine, says the corporate sponsorship may be a deterrent for a band like Radiohead, which spurned the big-label record industry by offering its latest album on a pay-what-you'd-like basis online.
"They don't need that extra push that a cellphone company-sponsored festival will provide for them. If Jack Johnson doesn't need Virgin's name attached to create the environment he wants, he's not going to do it."
Indeed, it's squabbles over creative control - and a lack of interest from concertgoers killing time as they wait for their favourite act - that are among the reasons why some bands don't play festivals, Bridge says.
There's also the open-air aspect, which can be a draw for some and a disincentive for others. A plus for many bands, he says, is the draw of playing with a diverse roster of talent.
"The music community is a big community; they like to get together with their compadres in the industry and have some fun at the festival," Bridge says.
Open-air festivals can be a gamble, and problems with weather and clean toilets can put a black mark on even the best planned festival, says Brophy of Chart.
During the first Toronto V-Fest in 2006, noise bylaws meant the Saturday night headliner, Flaming Lips, was rushed off stage after performing only four songs. Sunday's scheduled headliner, British band Massive Attack, was unable to even make it into Canada - festival organizers blamed immigration problems.
And organizers kept their "rain or shine" promise for Vancouver's 2007 show, as thousands of underdressed teenagers packed the open-air Thunderbird Stadium amidst a heavy downpour.
Despite the struggles, it's full steam ahead for V-Fest in Calgary and Toronto, which sees Foo Fighters and Oasis headline the third incarnation of the festival Sept. 6-7.
Bridge says it was a "tough go" for Virgin in its first year as it struggled to build the credibility necessary to attract top-name acts.
These days, the festival's biggest challenge for expanding is economics. Cities in many parts of the country, for example, don't have the population density of the Toronto area.
But Bridge suggests Virgin will soon use its market power to establish festivals in the more far-flung regions of Canada: "Those markets are definitely on our radar screen."
News from �The Canadian Press, 2008
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