Promoter cancels plans for Charlottetown music festival

There will be no major music festivals in Charlottetown this summer.

The city recently learned PMD Entertainment was backing out of a plan to host a multi-day festival at Confederation Landing at the end of July.

Events development officer Wayne Long says PMD told the city two or three weeks ago that the business plan no longer made sense.

'Too risky'

"The rationale at the end of the day that was given to us was the business plan just no longer made sense and that the elevated risk was just too risky to take on," Long said.

But no details about the business plan were provided, he added.

PMD originally planned to hold two festivals, including one on the Canada Day weekend, Long said.

"The news really caught us by surprise."

'Far too late'

It isn't just the concerts that are affected. The cancellation of this year's Ribfest was directly tied to the music festival, Long said.

There were also other promoters looking to hold concerts in Charlottetown that backed out when they learned PMD already had one planned.

"We may have lost two or three opportunities, given what was at play."

Long said there isn't enough time to work on securing other concerts for this summer.

"It's far too late to react at the level you would hope to achieve at this point in time."

'Everyone flocked to Charlottetown'

The city wants to return to the days when major concerts had visitors coming to Charlottetown in droves, Long said.

"[In] the days of Festival of Lights, Charlottetown owned the Canada Day weekend in the region. Everyone flocked to Charlottetown. That's where we want to get back to," he said.

"We are a pro-event city. Charlottetown is really known as an event destination. We've won a number of awards and accolades for our work."

Focus shifts to 2019

A lot of effort put into this music festival went for naught, Long said, but the city is now working on securing concerts for 2019.

The city only had one local contact with the promoter, and that could be a learning experience, he said.

"The one thing we learned from PMD, without being critical of that company, is we didn't know all the players who were involved."

CBC reached out to PMD for comment but haven't had a response.

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