This weekend the City of North Bay is gearing up for Summer in the Park. Last weekend the town of Mattawa celebrated its 20th annual Voyageur Days festival.
Mayor Dean Backer said weather played havoc with last years event. Other than a light sprinkling late Saturday night, weather conditions worked in everyone's favour this time around.
"We had a tough year last year but all indications show we rebounded quite well. Personally I enjoy seeing the people who have attended and supported our event from day one. We're far from the 7,000 and 7,500 people that attend the event itself, mind you I think we're close to the 3,000 mark for which we budgeted," said Backer.
The break even number is $300,000. The committee is still waiting for the final figures, which will take four to six weeks once all the money is collected and the bills are paid.
"All indications by the about of people that were there and wristband sales, we may be slightly higher than last year. I'm confident we exceeded our expectations. We want to try to continue to offer a family oriented event. It is a Mattawa homecoming. The days of bringing $100,000 to $150,000 entertainment, well that's just not going to happen."
The entertainment budget was scaled back this year. Backer said they took a gamble offering free entertainment for tribute bands on Sunday, paid for by the municipality, but it turned out to be a 'huge success.'
The committee did not receive any provincial or federal funding to help offset costs.
"We were really hurting for funding this year, we didn't even get money to help pay for our summer students who work the festival. It makes it a lot tougher for the municipality because of that," said Lucie Desrocher at the Mattawa Information Centre.
The committee would have liked a bigger turn out, but is happy with the number of people who did support the event.
"I think a lot of people were waiting for the weather. The surge was definitely from the Wednesday on. Even at the gate people were buying tickets. I think this is one of the first weekends that we've had without rain."
Roughly 80% of concert goers come from out of town. Some travelling from as far away as Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
"It's important for tourism. A lot of our grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, hotels, camping, really count on this. It's very important to the local economy, so we're hoping it keeps going."
The Mattawa Information Centre was busy with enquiries about what to do while in the region.
"We had a lot of people through the doors.They picked up brochures on other communities to see what they had to offer, like ATV trails, the ski hill, all the hiking trails in the area. Some said they hope to come back and stay longer next time," said Desrochers.
The mayor is aware of people who stayed the week to take in North Bay's Summer in the Park.
The festival committee will present its final report to municipal council sometime in September. It will be up to council to decide if Voyageur Days will return for its 21st year.
The mayor commented that he would like to see the festival moving forward for the next 20 years.
