Cavendish Beach Music Festival sees support for planned changes

A new site plan, changes to access and traffic flow and some new events are all part of this year's Cavendish Beach Music Festival on P.E.I.

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Most of the decisions came out of a heated meeting with local residents after last year's festival.

Jeff Squires, president of Whitecap Entertainment, the company that runs the festival, said they listened. The company held multiple meetings over the winter — with RCMP, highway officials, residents, tourism operators — in order to get it right this year.

"It's always about balance and always about listening and what you learn from that," said Squires.

"It's an Island event. The community takes a lot of pride. The community wants it to be run as smoothly as possible, with less disruption as possible, and that's understandable."

Some major changes

RCMP will have a more prominent position at the festival, but that is just one small part of the new approach.

The biggest change is access: two new roads and parking lots have been added to make it easier to get on, and more importantly, off the site. This will also keep the main road more clear.

"Before, where we had one way in and out of the venue along the traditional old access of Avonlea Village, that is now gone," said Squires.

"You have a dedicated access east and a dedicated access west. We've also eliminated the parking lot at Cavendish Grove, which should take a lot of congestion around that bottle neck that was traditionally at Avonlea Village."

Buses and taxis will be dropping passengers closer to the site and pedestrians will have a dedicated route and crossing area, and will now travel up the middle of the venue.

Plans for getting through the gates

Last year there was a major backup at the gates on the Friday night recalls Squires.

"[A] lot of people arrived between 5 and 8 o'clock and expected to walk right in," he said.

"To do that for eight or nine thousand people, it couldn't happen, and it created delays and it created frustration."

To move people through the gates more quickly it will be easier for ticketholders to get wristbands in advance.

• Staff will tour major cities in the Maritimes to hand them out.
• The campgrounds in Cavendish will have dedicated times before the concert for pickup.
• Attend one of the new free bonus events, such as a free tailgate party Thursday night.

The tailgate party will feature Doc Walker, Kelly Prescott, The Washboard Union, and Rivertown Saints.

There is also a new accessible ticket for those who have trouble walking. It's the same price as general admission, but will allow patrons to enter through the VIP entrance.

"We know that there are a number of people who come from off Island that are here already," said Squires.

"If they come to P.E.I. on Wednesday or Thursday it gets them to move around our Cavendish area here, enjoy some of the other things that are to do before the festival, gives them something to do on Thursday night."

Support in Cavendish

The changes were presented at an open meeting in North Rustico Thursday night. Community members in attendance were all for it, as is Cavendish resort municipality chair, Matthew Jelley.

"There's a lot of positives in this plan," said Jelley.

"It's a very positive development to have this new plan in place and we look forward to executing it this year."

Something else Jelley is excited about is an additional show on the Canada Day  long weekend. Designed for about 5,000 people, it will see Alan Doyle, Matt Anderson and the Stumbellas play.

"The Cavendish area has been a very popular destination for the Canada Day long weekend but you can't rest on that," he said.

"You have to continue to offer new things."

Squires said people have been asking Whitecap to present some smaller scales shows on the site.

All the changes still have to meet council approval.

The Cavendish Beach Music Festival runs July 8-10 this year.

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