PNE to strike balance between old favourites and new stuff
By John Mackie, VANCOUVER SUN
August 21, 2009 1:01 PM
VANCOUVER --
Forget the Olympics, next year is the 100th anniversary of the Pacific National Exhibition!
The PNE is looking at all sorts of special ways to celebrate its centennial, including the possibility of big-name concerts at a rebuilt Empire Stadium.[/COLOR]
Alas, that’s a year off, and the PNE still has to stage this year’s fair. A “penultimate” PNE, if you will, before the Big Do.
The fair opens today and runs to Sept. 7. To get some buzz going, the PNE has expanded its concert lineup and brought in all manner of new attractions. Still, programmers had to strike a balance with the traditional fair fare the masses know and love.
“The minute you try to be more contemporary, more cutting edge, more modern . . . we run the risk of alienating a very large group that wants tradition, that wants grassroots, that wants comfort and familiarity,” explains PNE president Mike McDaniel. “We try to do both, but almost by definition, they’re opposing themes.”
Thus the 99th annual Pacific National Exhibition will balance time-tested attractions like the Superdogs and big band legend Dal Richards with new stuff like Celtic Thunder (a Riverdance-style dance and music show) and Container Art, where eight local artists show their work in modified shipping containers.
For many traditional fair-goers the main attractions will be the 53 rides in Playland and the 250 vendors at Marketplace, land of the slicers and dicers and miracle cleaning solutions.
But the PNE will also be trying to lure in 20-somethings with a revamped beer garden with DJs and live bands.
The fair is even offering a $5 ticket to people who come after 9 p.m., as opposed to the regular $15.
The night-time concert lineup is arguably the strongest since the PNE abandoned the Star Spectacular format in the mid-1990s.
The PNE received $1.4 million from the federal government’s “Marquee Events Funding Program,” which allowed it to make a trio of big name additions in the last month: the Gipsy Kings, Chris Isaak and Randy Bachman.
“We’re spending another million-and-a-half dollars on the fair, which brings us to kind of breaking that $6-million bubble [for entertainment],” says McDaniel.
Subsidy a first
The PNE didn’t receive as much money from the $100-million Marquee Events program as the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto (which got $3 million) or the Calgary Stampede ($1.9 million). But it is the first time in memory that the PNE has received any government subsidy.
“Other fairs get government funding, we never have,” says McDaniel.
“This is uncharted waters for us. But this grant was designed specifically to increase tourism spending, because we have a significant tourism base. About 24 per cent of our demographics come from more than 80 kilometres away.
“The federal government thought if they increased the girth of the fair, they’d help increase the tourism related to this event.”
The big musical acts may increase attendance, but the real key to a successful fair is the weather. Last year was a washout, quite literally, with rain falling on 14 of 17 fair days. Normally the PNE attracts 900,000 people and up; last year’s attendance was 762,000.
The PNE’s media relations head Laura Ballance thinks that number is great, considering the weather.
“It’s the greatest tribute to this event, that three-quarters of a million people showed up in that weather,” says Ballance. “There were days I was walking around and people were wearing garbage bags and ponchos and they were still out having a good time.”
The extra cash — which had to be spent this year — helped pay for Hockey Canada Fanfest, an “interactive festival” that will include “historical exhibits and interactive events.” The PNE has also lined up cool stuff from the BC Sports Hall of Fame for a display in the Pacific Coliseum, including the stop watch that was used for the “Miracle Mile” race during the British Empire Games in 1954.
The ever-popular RCMP Musical Ride will return to the Agrodome for the first time in a decade.
At the opposite end of the sonic (and law and order) spectrum is
a new motor show called On The Edge, which includes “death-defying quad races” and “car-to-car battles.”
There will be more sand sculptures along Miller Drive (10), and
a new end of the night sendoff, Kaboom. Billed as “a pyro-musical explosion” that “captures moments in [PNE] history,” Kaboom is designed to start the countdown to the 100th anniversary.
The popular kids entertainers the Doodlebops will be appearing at the Global BC Amphitheatre Sept. 4, while Johnny and the Sprites will be at the same venue Aug. 27 to Aug. 31.
Irish music and dance
The Celtic Legends will combine Irish music and dance at the Gardens for three shows daily (12:30, 2:30 and 6 p.m.). Ballance says staging something like this for free is part of the PNE’s strength.
“Maybe you wouldn’t spend $40 to $60 to go to see that at the Centre [for the Performing Arts], but you can come here and have a half-hour experience,” she said.
The nightly concert series includes April Wine (Aug. 24), En Vogue (Aug. 25), Al Jarreau (Aug. 26), Rick Springfield (Aug. 27), a double bill of Bachman and the Headpins (Aug. 28), and another double bill with Chilliwack and Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts (Aug. 29). The Gipsy Kings play Sept. 4 and Isaak plays Sept. 5.
The B.C. Lions will be holding an open practice for the public at the old Empire Stadium site Aug. 30. No official announcement has been forthcoming about the site, but it is believed that a temporary 30,000-seat facility will be erected there for the 2010 season so that workers can install a new retractable roof at BC Place downtown.
If Empire Stadium is rebuilt, probably using seating from Olympic venues, it would be a natural place to stage a big concert or two during the 2010 fair. But McDaniel says he doesn’t know what exactly is up.
“If they have a problem [with the BC Place roof], they will try to look for an alternate venue,” he says. “If it works out that Empire is the alternate venue, we’ll work with the city and the city will work with them, and we’ll figure something out. But no information has come out.”
In any event, this year’s fair will have a budget of $23 million, part of a year-round budget for the PNE grounds of $45 million. The PNE makes a lot of money booking venues like the Coliseum and the Forum out to sporting events and film shoots. Throw in revenues from Playland, which the PNE owns, and usually the PNE breaks even or makes money.
This is a far cry from many fairs — the Calgary Stampede, for example, gets a $10-million subsidy each year from the Alberta government.
jmackie@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
All of this sounds awesome, especially the parts highlighted in red for next year....I can't wait. Even make it a new tradition to have a big concert at Empire Stadium. Hopefully, the federal government's subsidy stays for next year's fair...perhaps, they could even increase it.
) But everything is really not worth the price.
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