Umbrellas were up for Saturday night’s live musical entertainment at Mattawa Voyageur Days in Mattawa, but most seemed to take it all in stride.
The evening topped off a full day of family activities, most of which were free.
Going into Saturday, wristband sales were roughly halfway to hitting the 5,000 sell-out mark.
Lucie Desrochers Voyageur Days team leader expects that number to climb once they tally up sales from outside of Mattawa.
“Selling 25-hundred wristbands will get us close to breaking even. There are a lot of free events that we have to pay for, so we’re not generating any money from that,” said Desrochers who pointed out some of those sales came from out of province.
“We’ve sold wristbands to people from British Columbia, Nova Scotia, some from the States, so they’re still travelling. I think actually most of the people are visitors that come to it.”
Erin Vivian and her family drove five hours from Laval, Quebec for the weekend.
This is her second time attending Voyageur Days.
“The music was pretty good last year, and the lumberjack show is good this year. It is a beautiful event and it is fun to come to a small town and get out of the city,” said Vivian.
“We’re staying for two nights. We’re doing a little bit of shopping while we’re here. We went to North Bay, went to the movie theatre there, the shopping centre, so it has been fun.”
This is the first time at Voyageur Days for mom Marie Vivian.
“We’ve rented a house, all of us together. My other daughter and her son came down too. And I brought my one grandson, so we all rented a house together, so there is seven of us here,” said Vivian.
“This is great. I love everything about it. There is lots to do for the kids. The lumberjack show is fun. But I’m here for the music. I’m all country. If they had all three nights country, that would be better, but one night of country is still good” laughed Vivian.
Mattawa, like other communities hosting festivals, is experiencing competition for the tourist dollar.
“When we started 22 years ago, there were very few festivals, and then more festivals kept popping up doing the same format as us, doing all the 80’s bands and stuff like that,” said Desrochers.
“I think the market got saturated and money is tighter now. So, I think that is what it is. And we changed it up with the tribute bands because entertainment is a lot more expensive now. The same band even 10 years ago has tripled in price.”
At the end of the day, it is about the community.
“Our goal every year is to break even. We’re here for the town.”
Desrochers says the local economic spinoff is close to $2 million.
“It is hard to believe, but you have to consider there’s camping, shopping, restaurants, groceries, and gas, all of that.”
The weekend got off to a good start.
“Friday night was great. There was a good crowd. The openers which were newcomers really surprised the audience because most people were here for Lonestar so that was kind of neat,” said Desrochers.
“I would guess we had about 25-hundred people here. There were no incidents at all. Everybody was happy so it was a really good night.”
Sunday’s entertainment lineup features tribute bands.
“One of the things that we’ve changed in the last three years is tribute bands on Sunday. We’ve got really good tribute bands again. We’ve got Roadhouse from the area which everybody knows and loves, and then we have Queen Flash which is a Queen tribute band from Montreal. To close it off we have Destroyer which is a KISS tribute band so it should be pretty fun.”
Day passes are available at the gate for Sunday at a cost of $20.
The committee will present its financial report to the municipal council in early fall.
Desrochers says getting approval early to host the event again next year gives the committee a running start.
“The later you wait the harder it is to get entertainment because they already have their tours set up.”
