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West Shore Parks and Recreation plans new events to make up for concert cancellation

Comic Con, train show and lumber conference key pieces to recover lost revenue of Rock the Shores
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West Shore Parks and Recreation staff are eyeing new opportunities to make up for the loss of revenue brought on by the cancellation of its major summer concert, Rock the Shores.

“We made a decision to find out at a certain time whether the event was going to go forward or not, because we do have other opportunities to use the space for summer tournaments,” said manager of recreation Geoff Welham.

ALSO READ: The shores will not rock in 2019

Atomique Productions announced Saturday they would not proceed with Rock the Shores in 2019.

“We aren’t certain what the future holds for this event as it will depend on business conditions and talent availabilities in our region,” read the announcement. “It has been an amazing run and we will miss it this summer.”

Welham attributed the cancellation to the challenges Atomique is facing with talent and “the landscape in the music industry.”

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Parks and recreation staff are still reviewing the impact on the budget. Several new and returning trade shows – on lumber, IT, cars and trains – are in the works for the summer and would help recover some of the lost revenue.

“It would be a small amount of lost revenue, basically, in us not having a festival such as this, but it will be offset by the sports tournament and other trade shows that are scheduled,” Welham said.

ALSO READ: West Shore Parks and Rec funding formula under review

The loss of the region’s major concert event does leave a void in terms of entertainment of this type, Welham added.

“From the community’s perspective, a festival such as Rock the Shores does meet a gap in the programming in the West Shore, and hopefully we’ll be able to work with Atomique in the future again.”

swikar.oli@goldstreamgazette.com


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