Pemberton Wants New Promoter

A provincial land commission in British Columbia has denied a request by the Village of Pemberton and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District to seek out a promoter other than Live Nation for the Pemberton Festival.

The multi-day fest, which took place in 2008, drew about 40,000 concertgoers to see acts including Jay-Z, Coldplay, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and Nine Inch Nails. However, it’s failed to make money or a repeat performance in the years since and Live Nation has repeatedly stated it would like to return and continues to work to make the event “financially feasible.”

The locals are apparently getting restless with LN. During a meeting with the Agricultural Land Commission in March, Pemberton and SLRD officials proposed an amendment to an existing memorandum of understanding that would remove Live Nation’s designation as the only acceptable promoter at the festival site, according to the Whistler Question.

But in a May 16 decision obtained by the paper, the ALC denied that request, explaining the commission has “no confidence that the interests of agriculture will be served by now allowing one or more promoters to use these good agricultural lands.”

When the MOU was drafted, the decision states, “Live Nation Inc. (had) the resources to meet the commission’s expectations in terms of rehabilitation of the land as well as delivering tangible benefits to agriculture.”

Further, should Pemberton and the SLRD decide to go it alone with another promoter, the ALC wrote that it would consider any requests “collectively as a new proposal” and the process would start all over again.

Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy told the Question the village continues discussions with Live Nation but said there’s skepticism as to whether another festival will ever take place.

“We very much wanted to see an event here in Pemberton and [when] Live Nation didn’t return in 2009, 2010 and now 2011… we felt an alteration to the MOU was our best [way] to ensure that we had options,” he said. “I still feel that it would have been in the best interests of the community.”