By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Feb. 18,2013
Thousands of visitors won’t visit Squamish this summer as a top music festival leaves town for Merritt.
Bass Coast, a three-day music festival, held in the Squamish Valley for the past four years, is leaving Squamish for Merritt.
Concerns about space and noise in Squamish, and a much bigger venue and a welcoming city hall in Merritt all led to the decision, said organizer Andrea Graham.
“We outgrew the site and it’s time for us to move to a new location,” she said.
In Merritt, the festival will be held on the site of the Merritt Music Festival.
Graham said Bass Coast in Squamish had reached a peak of 3,000 visitors and expansion in the valley seemed implausible.
Merritt can accommodate more than 4,000 people; existing infrastructure, dry weather, and city rules are a further help.
“It’s been zoned for this kind of festival,” she added.
With an eye on expansion in Squamish, Graham said option of bussing people to the site was explored, but was finally rejected as the big draw for people who come to the site is camping.
“That is part of the experience, to have people come here and camp and enjoy and make a home,” she said.
She said Bass Coast looked at options between Squamish and Whistler, but there wasn’t much available other than crown land.
Live at Squamish venue wouldn’t work because of time restrictions.
She also said SLRD was quite supportive of the festival, although she could foresee permit issues if the festival were to expand in the existing location.
Noise complaints were also a concern, she added.
“The neighbouring community can hear it and we knew they weren’t happy with that,” she said.
She said SLRD director Maurice Freitag called and urged them to stay.
“He was upset and wanted us to stay, but we have exhausted all options here,” she said.
Graham said even though Bass Coast is moving away, the core crew involved will stay in Squamish.
They are also looking for a new place in Squamish to hold the Bass Coast Halloween event, a runaway success that attracted thousands of people.
“We want that culture to be kept alive in Squamish,” she said.
The festival will take place from Aug. 3 to 5.
Jim Webster says
WOW!! More than one hole in the ship. To bad.
Courtney Driver says
Change is good… it’s unfortunate as we all LOVE Squamish and the wonderfulness of our valley.. and the 20 minutes it takes to get to BCP…. but I am stoked for you ladies and the crew… excited for August long weekend… LOVE!xo
moe says
In my own opinion, this is a very unfortunate circumstance of the success of this event. For there part Bass Coast was an excellent corporate citizen. Always there to discuss issues, willing to accommodate those who felt they were impacted in a not so positive way. Sometimes the alternative to embracing such events is not having them altogether which is unfortunate in this circumstance.
I am hopeful that our current inability to accommodate this event in our area does not close the door on the possibility of finding a suitable location for this event or events such as this to be held in our region.
Best of luck to Andrea a crew, your level of creativity, professionalism and attention to the greater needs of our communities does not go unrecognized.
To Merritt you receive an eclectic music festival that definitely test boundaries, embraces a little bit of the crazy, provides space and opportunities for innovation and definitely provides far more positives impacts than negatives. All the best!
Dottie says
Wow! There certainly will be many, many disappointed people. Sad news for Squamish. Congratulations Merritt. Let’s hope we get the Bass Coast Halloween event!
Craig Davidiuk says
I probably had some of the best times evah! at BCP. Heavy duty bummer! This festival has been a cultural cornerstone in our town since it started. Sniffle.
Jason Bechard says
This type of event is going to become bigger and bigger due to the demographics it caters too. Squamish has very limited open spaces so this move doesn’t surprise me in the least. This also means now there is an opening to create another type of this event…the future is wide open Squamish.