Stars and Thunder ignites Timmins community, but future of festival up in the air

The second edition of the Stars and Thunder music and fireworks festival continues to roll through Timmins.

The eight-day event boasts a lineup with the likes of The Beach Boys, Burton Cummings, Alan Doyle, Roch Voisine and the Arkells. It all wraps up on Sunday with a performance by Bryan Adams.

The festival, organized and funded by the city, is also featuring a week-long fireworks competition put on by crews from around the world.

However, surrounding the festivities is a debate that has polarized much of the community since before Stars and Thunder was conceived.

The backdrop

In 1999, hometown star Shania Twain performed a Canada Day concert to great fanfare in the community.

For the better part of the next two decades, it would become a symbol residents would often point to as the last big music event to stand out in their collective minds.

The situation came to a head when the Kirkland Lake Festivals Committee attracted the Tragically Hip for two sold-out shows in 2015.

Longtime city councillor Noella Rinaldo recalls the outcry in the Timmins community and on social media.

"It was always like we were not good enough, like the cousin that just wasn't…like the black sheep of the family," says Rinaldo. "We were kind of saying, you know what, we need to step up and bring these events ourselves."

Turning point

In 2014, former city councillor Steve Black was elected the youngest mayor in Timmins' history.

Since then, his priorities have included fixing Highway 101 through Timmins and attempting to spearhead the construction of a new pool and sports complex.

But his passion project has become Stars and Thunder.

In October 2016, council overwhelmingly supported the organization and funding of the first-ever Stars and Thunder Festival, despite some dissent around the financial risk the city was taking on.

But in the community, online speculation turned into general excitement after international country star Keith Urban was announced as the headliner.

In the end, more than 20,000 tickets were sold in 2017. For eight straight days, Timmins was in party mode, a collective release after many years of frustration.

But there were challenges. Many of the fireworks were cancelled due to bad weather. There were complaints about very long lines for food, and no freely available drinking water.

Unexpected costs kept popping up in the months leading up to the event, and the budget to rose from $3.5 million to almost $5 million.

Despite recouping most of the expenses, the city ended up on the hook for about $560,000.

"I didn't think [the first Stars and Thunder] would be as big as it was, but it was. I'm glad we did," says Rinaldo.

"Now it came with its costs, and there was a cost involved, but the economic spinoffs were huge. Publicity? Huge. [The feeling] in the community in terms of pride? Invaluable.

"We look at it a little differently than a promoter does. We're not in it to make money. We're looking at this to attract people to Timmins, to put Timmins in a showcase, to attract businesses, and it does. This ticks off a lot of boxes of community, and as a council, we're the only ones who will be able to tick off all those boxes."

When the dust settled and it came time to decide, council again voted in favour of organizing another festival.

"The reason I accepted the decision to go ahead with the second one was I saw a great social interaction at the last one," says Bamford. "In the age of social media and people spending a lot of time alone on the Internet [...] I thought this would a great occasion for that."

Last August, council approved a $5.7 million budget for Stars and Thunder 2018. City staff also began providing public monthly financial updates.

Current situation

At the final update in early June, CAO Dave Landers reported that just over 6,000 tickets had been sold for $1.6 million in revenue.

With the city's plan to make a total of $4.5 million back in ticket sales, there seemed to be a long way to go.

Councillor Joe Campbell had long argued the risk of a city-funded festival was too much for taxpayers to bear.

"I think everybody around this table knows where we're headed for this thing," said Campbell at the time of the final update. "If you get the same ticket sales as you got in June and July last year, when you had a major star, you're still going to have a shortfall of 7,000 tickets or $2 million. So we better prepare the public for a loss here."

As the event has progressed, however, the city reports same-day ticket sales are up significantly. Walk-up purchases almost doubled over the first two days compared to last year, from $91,600 up to $171,000.

"Hopefully we continue to see that trend throughout the rest of the week and we make up the difference," says Black.

As for the future of Stars and Thunder, Black, who is running for re-election in October, says time will tell.

"That's a decision that a future council will have to make," notes Black. "If we lose significant dollars again, I too have said that I wouldn't support it going forward. It needs to be something that's supported by the residents, and they need to come out and support it if they want to see it back.

"But I would assume if the festival loses a significant amount of money, it would be something that council would re-consider and look at not doing, or definitely changing up the logistics of it if they do consider doing it."