After 2020, music fest may Be forced to scale down
Upcoming 10-year city plan may force major changes to several popular events
The para-municipal organization that runs Parc Jean-Drapeau is considering scaling back the size of Osheaga, Canada’s leading music festival, and a representative for La Société du Parc Jean-Drapeau said it’s even possible the plan going forward will not include Osheaga at all.
Evenko, which runs all the major music festivals at Parc Jean-Drapeau — including Osheaga, Heavy Montreal, ÎleSoniq and ’77 Montreal — has launched a petition to try to get public support for their events and to make sure they stay on Île Ste-Hélène, which along with Île Notre-Dame, makes up Parc Jean-Drapeau. Piknic Électronik, an electronic-music event that takes place on Île Ste-Hélène every Sunday, has launched a similar petition and the folks who run that are also worried their future on the island might be in jeopardy.
La Sociéte du Parc Jean-Drapeau is in the process of drawing up a 10-year plan for the islands and the Office de consultation publique de Montréal is in the midst of a yearlong consultation on the matter. There are public hearings coming at the end of the month.
In an interview Thursday, a senior bureaucrat working for La Société de Parc Jean-Drapeau, who did not wish to be named, said they want to give the park back to the citizens rather than have it dominated by big events like Osheaga and the F1 race. The previous city administration, under mayor Denis Coderre, gave the green light to a project to renovate and increase the size of the main amphitheatre at Parc Jean-Drapeau, bringing its capacity from 45,000 to 65,000. That work, which comes with a price tag of more than $70 million, is expected to be finished by the end of this year.
The representative from La Société said their goal is to have festivals like Osheaga take place entirely in the amphitheatre and not on other locations on the island. This is precisely the fear of the Evenko executives. Their two main Osheaga stages are in the amphitheatre, but a key part of the festival’s charm is based on the more intimate stages — like the Green, Tree and Valley stages — that are located elsewhere.
“We want to make sure everyone is aware of how many hundreds of thousands of people have discovered the site because of the festivals they’ve gone to see there,” said Nick Farkas, vice-president of concerts and events at Evenko. “They ’ve found out what an amazing location it is because of the festivals. We hear it from bands, we hear it from agents, we hear it from fans. It’s one of the best event sites in North America and we want to make sure the people who use it as a festival site get an opportunity to make sure their voice is heard.”
Approximately 1.65 million people have visited Parc Jean-Drapeau over the past nine years as a result of the Evenko-run festivals and the economic boost for Montreal from Osheaga in 2017 was $19 million.
The organizers of Piknic Électronik share Evenko’s worries.
“We just want to make sure we’ll keep an important place in the park,” said Piknic Électronik co-founder Nicolas Cournoyer. “I don’t think they’d just get rid of (all the festivals). That would be crazy, because these events are good ambassadors for Montreal.”
Between 5,000 and 10,000 people turn up for each Piknic Électronik, which takes place every Sunday from May to September.
The political backdrop to all this is that the Projet Montréal administration was vehemently opposed to the project to renovate the amphitheatre, with Projet officials particularly steamed by the fact that 1,000 mature trees were cut down. A spokesman for Projet recently said the only reason they didn’t cancel the project was that by the time they came into power last November, it was too late because it had already been going on for months.
In addition, relations have been strained between Evenko and city hall. Evenko worked closely with former mayor Coderre on the Formula E electric race, an event that Projet strongly criticized. This past May, Evenko and Parc Jean-Drapeau had to reveal the financial details of the lease Evenko has with the park, and Mayor Valérie Plante was one of the people that put pressure on them to make those figures public.
Evenko paid $1.3 million to lease the site in 2017, part of a five-year deal that expires in 2020. So through 2020, Evenko will be able to use all of the sites it currently uses on Île Ste-Hélène, but the representative from La Société said all possibilities are on the table, including not hosting Osheaga on the island.
Robert Beaudry, the Projet councillor for the downtown district that includes Parc Jean-Drapeau, said in an interview Thursday that Projet has had good communication with Evenko. But he admitted he only learned of the Evenko petition when the interview was set up earlier in the day.
“We want the citizen to be at the heart of this process,” Beaudry said. “For years, the installations at the park were more important than the park itself. When Montrealers think of Parc Jean-Drapeau, they think of La Ronde, they think of the casino. But they don’t think of the green spaces. So we want to figure out how to make the most of these spaces. There is a real jewel here ... the objective is that Montrealers will come out the winners. I don’t understand why (Evenko is afraid). Evenko is a partner, just like La Ronde is a partner ... those partners are important. But the island belongs to Montrealers.”
The Office de Consultation is scheduled to finish its work by January 2019 and then La Société de Parc Jean-Drapeau would deliver its new 10-year plan by the start of 2020. Finally, it will have to be approved by city hall.
I don’t think they’d just get rid of (all the festivals). That would be crazy, because these events are good ambassadors for Montreal.