Riverfest Elora and Summerfolk say their heads are still above water after a rainy weekend

Two Ontario music festivals that had to cancel shows due to torrential rains this past weekend say they still have their heads above water financially, and they expect to return next year to celebrate milestone anniversaries. 

Riverfest Elora shut down its Saturday night show due to a lightning storm and moved two of the acts who were scheduled to perform into its indoor after party venues. 

Summerfolk in Owen Sound shut down performances three times due to lightning and moved its Sunday night main stage performances to the Down By the Bay stage in the beer tent because of flooding in the amphitheatre, said artistic director James Keelaghan.

"On Sunday, we had rain, the likes of which I had only ever seen when I was in North Carolina on the edge of a hurricane," Keelaghan said.

"I walked into the amphitheatre, and there was, like, a foot and a half of water … like backstage."

Advance ticket sales slow

Rain has always posed a risk to the fortunes of outdoor music festivals, but Canadian festivals have been contending with additional threats to their livelihoods since coming back from COVID-19-related shut-downs, said Erin Benjamin, the president and CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association. 

"The ongoing convergence of influences ... be they inflation or continuing supply chain disruption, etc., and then you add severe weather into the mix, I mean it continues to be a perfect storm for festivals," she said. 

Advance ticket sales for Summerfolk had been so dismal that organizers had been worried about paying all the performers, nevermind staging next year's 50th anniversary edition, Keelaghan said.  

But on Friday, he said, he watched ticket sales go up and up and up.

"Even when it was raining, they kept buying tickets, he said.

"On Saturday, when we had the first of the torrential downpours and we had to shut the site down, people were still buying tickets," he said

"We couldn't believe it. We just couldn't believe it," he added. "We sold, like, 200 or 300 day passes on Sunday, even though the forecast was for torrential, debilitating rain."

Attendance numbers were still down, Keelaghan said, but nowhere near as badly as expected. 

While the final accounting still needs to be done, he predicts that the festival will be about $40,000 off budget. That's not as bad as they were worried it could be.

What's more, he said, moving concerts into the licensed tents resulted in more beer and wine sales than usual.  

"It's not like we're going to bank any money," Keelaghan, said.  "But right now, it looks like we're going to be OK."

Most rain in the festival's history

Owen Sound received nearly 120 millimetres of rain in 48 hours over the weekend, according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. 

Elora received 78 millimetres during the same time period.

That's "the most rain we've ever had in 15 years of doing this festival," said Riverfest Elora creative director Spencer Shewen.

"We would get a row of lightning or a row of rain, and then that would last for 45 minutes. And then the sun would come out," he said.

'You trick yourself into thinking, like, it's all done. And then, of course, like an hour later, another one comes through."

The ground, which was already moist from previous rainfalls, became so saturated that water was pooling on the surface, and staff and volunteers had to spread wood chips to try and keep the site safe, he added. 

In the end, only two of the 55 acts in the festival's line-up this year didn't get to play, something Shewen described as a relief.

The festival's ticket sales this year returned to 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic, he said.

But the rising costs involved in putting the event on mean that the festival is still in recovery mode and is not yet in the clear

Nonetheless, Shewen said, he feels confident that Riverfest will return for its 15th anniversary edition next year.

"We already have a few bands booked," he said. "We're planning some big things for next year."