Montebello businesses, residents hope for Rockfest's return

They may not all be crazy about the music, but people who live and work in Montebello, Que., are hoping the recent bankruptcy filing by Montebello Rockfest isn't the end of the annual festival.

The organizers of Rockfest, which brings tens of thousands of music fans each summer to the small western Quebec town, were $5 million in debt when they applied for insolvency protection in June.

In a statement posted to Facebook on Friday, Rockfest founder Alex Martel said the organization had been unable to recover financially and was now declaring bankruptcy.

• Montebello Rockfest declares bankruptcy

"I still hope [Rockfest] stays in Montebello. It's very important for businesses and for people here," said Pierre Nguyen, owner of a local convenience store, in a French-Language interview with Radio-Canada.

After this summer's three-day festival, organizers acknowledged that some 100 creditors — including artists and technicians — had not been paid. The festival had been given $500,000 by the Quebec government one week prior to declaring insolvency.

Nevertheless, Martel said last week that he remained optimistic the festival — which featured the likes of Dropkick Murphys, Sum 41 and Weezer this year —would continue in some form.

Conditional support

Alain Préfontaine, a customer at Nguyen's store, said he'd be in favour of local and provincial officials working to ensure the festival continues in Montebello — but not at any cost.

"I'm not sure that a village the size of Montebello is capable of taking on a debt as big as that. I would not want to put people in trouble or to borrow money [to keep Rockfest going]," he said in French.

Mathieu Lacombe, the MNA for Papineau and Quebec's minister for the Outaouais region, said in a tweet that he'd already been in touch with Martel, Montebello Mayor Martin Deschênes, and Caroline Proulx, the province's tourism minister.

Radio-Canada reached out to Deschênes​ for comment on Saturday but did not hear back.