Changing its tune

Charlottetown Downtown Residents Association backs off opposition on summer concerts

The Charlottetown Downtown Residents Association (CDRA) is backing off its comments that concerts should not be held in Confederation Landing Park.

The Guardian ran a story in its Wednesday edition in which Laurent Beaulieu, spokesman with CDRA, said the park was no place for concerts and that the group was caught completely off guard when city council voted Monday night to allow two summer concerts to go ahead this year.

Beaulieu is also running for the Ward 1 seat on city council in the November civic election. David Brown, president of CDRA, was taking a much softer stance in an interview with The Guardian on Wednesday afternoon.

Brown said the group is keeping an open mind about the concert and will be making no pre-conceived notions about the issue until residents get to have their say at the public meeting on April 5 at St. Paul’s Parish Hall in Charlottetown. The meeting goes 7-9 p.m.

Brown said as has been the case in the past, they’ll bring in city and concert officials and the police department and talk about all the issues that need to be discussed.

“We had (a public meeting) there a couple of years ago when they were putting an event down at Confederation Landing Park,’’ Brown said, referring to a 2015 concert that featured Kim Mitchell.

“We had the meeting, and it turned out to be a great meeting because it gave the residents a chance to put their concerns out about the event. Afterwards, all parties were pleased (and the concert) went ahead. This is going to be the same thing here.’’ Brown said Beaulieu jumped the gun in speaking out against the concert.

“We never make any judgment on something going on in the downtown core without a meeting. That’s what we’re all waiting for, to have the meeting. We’re on the same page now.’’

Brown said their biggest concern with concerts at Confederation Landing Park in the past have been addressed.

“The biggest concern was parking and the police took care of that very well.’’

Brown also dismissed that concerts, especially one that is only supposed to draw a maximum of 5,000 people per show, should only be held at Charlottetown Event Grounds.

“The police are there to dispense the crowd. When you have it at the event grounds you’re still going to get the people coming down through (the downtown) area going to the clubs. It’s really no different from one place to the other in my opinion.’’