Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAO-14-036 - Big Music Fest Event Debrief Staff Report K jTC HF,-Ni., CA0 Office www.kitchener ca REPORT TO: Committee of the Whole DATE OF MEETING: September 8, 2014 SUBMITTED BY: Rod Regier, Executive Director of Economic Development 519-741-2200, Ext. 7506 PREPARED BY: Jeff Young, Manager, Special Events, 519-741-2200, Ext. 7388 WARD (S) INVOLVED: All DATE OF REPORT: September 8, 2014 REPORT NO.: CAO-14-036 SUBJECT: Big Music Fest Debrief RECOMMENDATION: For information. BACKGROUND: The City of Kitchener through KEDS 2011-14 has the objective of supporting urban vitality by facilitating the development of special events throughout the annual calendar, and increasingly, in venues across the city. In 2014, more than 100 City of Kitchener sponsored events will take place hosting approximately 550,000 attendees. The primary location for special events is typically downtown Kitchener. This past July the city welcomed Big Music Fest and nearly 50,000 attendees from across the region and around the world to McLennan Park to enjoy a three day music festival July 11-13, 2014. Up until this point, McLennan Park had not been host to any type of festival. The three day event began on Friday, which was open to the public free of charge. Many neighbourhood residents attended the opening night and were able to enjoy the midway and watch the Breaking Bands competition which included a number of local independent bands. Saturday and Sunday's ticketed event showcased international recording artists including Aerosmith, Bryan Adams, Slash and Styx among others. In just its first year the event has become one of Canada's largest international music festivals. IF1 - 1 REPORT McLennan Park Positives Areas for Improvement Future Changes • Based on community Strategy to reduce the • Increase the number of feedback both the dog amount of trash within garbage and recycling park and bike trails the event site containers throughout the remained open for the site and along pathway duration of the festival • Monday morning after Improved opportunities • Improved communication the festival the skate park for recycling of cans and with vendors on proper was re-opened for public water bottles trash collection/disposal use • Tuesday afternoon the • Better signage for water • An increase in staff majority of the park had bottle refilling station on dedicated to collecting been re-opened to the site for attendees trash on site by the public for use promoter • City & Regional staff • Staff to meet with worked quickly to ensure Regional staff on the park was safe for the improvements for the festival attendees and park the casual user in the weeks leading up to the event • Excellent layout options for a large scale festival in the park • The park was cleared of attendees by 11:20 pm each night • Ottawa Street was reopened early after the event each night Parking/By-law Enforcement Positives Area's for Improvement Future Changes • Extensive communication Some residents Opportunity to implement through many channels — commented they did not a "special event" ticket social media, letters to receive the letter that acts as a deterrent to residents, emails to ticket regarding parking passes attendees from parking purchasers, street on street during a festival signage (3 hour bylaw) • Parking passes for on The current ticket for a 3 Ensure all residences street parking were well hour bylaw infraction is receive a letter outlining received (2,000+) the same or less than the the parking policy cost to park • Neighbourhood IF1 - 2 attendants positioned throughout entry points to residential areas • A total of just 240 tickets were issued • Residents were pleased with the presence of bylaw staff throughout the weekend • Close proximity lots and private businesses, churches, etc made "day of parking available— no issues either day with trash being left behind Emergency Services (Police, Fire, EMS) Positives Areas for Improvement Future Changes • Met on a regular basis Improved location for Opportunity to utilize the with emergency services EMS tent next year— Emergency on planning for the more centrally located for Preparedness Plan from festival (police, fire, EMS) faster access BMF and implement for future events in the city • WRPS described the Security to utilize blue weekend as "uneventful" strobe light to identify location of need quickly in large crowd • EMS, St. John Identify grid patterns with Ambulance and WR security personnel in REACT noted they advance for faster treated a small number of response times if people for minor required conditions—one patient was transported to a local hospital • Emergency Potentially add a tented Preparedness Plan was area in the "bowl" area of thorough the site (behind front of house) • WRPS worked closely with staff to scale officers up or down throughout the weekend • WRPS did an excellent job of engaging with attendees IF1 - 3 Shuttles Positives Areas for Improvement Future Changes • Free shuttle service Opportunity to increase Should the festival return offered to festival the revenue from parking to McLennan Park the attendees reduced the parking/shuttle strategy number of vehicles in the will need to be reviewed neighbourhood (approx. based on the uncertainty 2,500) around the economics of the parking/shuttle model • Multiple pickup and drop More shuttle signage in Increase the directional off locations in the city the park for end of night signage for shuttles within the park • Approximately 7,000 people were shuttled to the festival throughout the weekend • Dave FM partnered with us to encourage free parking in the City Hall garage for the festival — opportunity to explore our downtown • No waits at any time for a shuttle before or after the festival • Revenue from parking lots helped to offset the cost of the shuttles Bike Valet Positives Area's for Improvement Future Changes • Extensive education to Continue to promote the Opportunity to work with the public of alternative use of alternative other events throughout modes of transportation transportation methods to the city to make the to the festival through festivals service available to social media, city & BMF attendees in 2015 websites, direct emails to ticket purchasers • Bike valet was well • Potential to add received by attendees additional bike valet throughout the weekend locations at each entrance • Footprint for bike valet • Increase the footprint more than tripled in size of the bike valet area from Saturday to Sunday due to increased demand IF1 - 4 Neighbourhood Positives Areas for Improvement Future Changes • Hosted an information • Increased lighting • Increase the amount of session on April 16, to along the pathway lighting along the gather feedback from intersecting the park pathway that intersects the neighbourhood the park • Neighbourhood • Path running alongside • Review site plan to see embraced the event the dog park was if dog park path with BBQ's and unavailable due to remaining open to the gatherings throughout emergency services public is viable the neighborhoods access • Feedback from Some noise complaints Create interest or buzz residents noted an were received over the at other events leading enhanced sense of weekend up to BMF to generate community and were awareness and hopeful of a return to revenue from the McLennan Park in donated tickets to the 2015 neighbourhood associations • Many residents sat on Improved distribution of front porches/back the donated tickets decks talking with from the promoter to neighbours/enjoying raise money for the the music neighbourhood associations • The free Friday night of the festival saw a significant turnout of residents from the neighbourhood • Thousands of residents who did not purchase a ticket sat in lawn chairs, blankets, etc around the perimeter of McLennan Park to enjoy the atmosphere • NA's received $8k worth of tickets to be sold, raffled, given away for the festival IF1 - 5 Impact The Big Music Fest had a significant positive impact on our city and region this past summer. Aside from putting our city on the international stage, the estimated local economic impact of the first year of the three day festival was approximately $3.5MM with a GDP of approximately $3MM. In addition, the event was covered by many national news outlets generating in excess of 658,982,494 potential media impressions for our city. Based on a very modest valuation, these potential media impressions have a value in the range of$1.3MM to $3.3MM. Legal The success of the Big Music Festival was the result of the work of a great number of people who applied and enhanced a collective skillset that will be transferrable to other events in other venues. The legal department was involved from an early date in the process, and the drafting and approval of the contract for the festival proceeded without incident. A number of innovations were made within the contractual arrangements, and note has been taken of opportunities for improvement in future contracts for future events. With respect to the site itself, McLennan Park will always present challenges as it is a former landfill site that will continue to have soil stability issues and issues surrounding the production of landfill gas, and these issues will need to be addressed on an ongoing basis through continuing mitigation, inspection, and maintenance activities. Also, McLennan Park is leased land, and subleases will always require an approval from the Region and Hydro One. The City will never have absolute certainty that these approvals can continue to be obtained but the City can reasonably expect that, if given, the approvals will be subject to conditions requiring various actions by the City. These actions may require substantial expenditures of funds, above and beyond the costs needed to maintain the park for its normal day-to-day uses, and it is important that this be considered in any future arrangements with any promoter so that the City may recover its costs. The selection of another venue that does not present the environmental issues of a former landfill site may be an attractive option for the City. IF1 - 6 Budget Big Music Fest Budget TABLE A Actual Budgeted Revenue Ticket Sales $ 2,300.00 $ 2,300.00 Event Sponsorship $ 8,000.00 $ - Parking Revenue $ 39,073.05 $ 45,000.00 Total $ 49,373.05 $ 47,300.00 Expenses Parking Permits $ 328.65 $ - Meeting Expenses $ 54.05 $ - FacebookAds- Parking $ 186.00 $ - Shuttles $ 26,500.00 $ 25,000.00 Tix 123 $ 6,069.13 $ - Parking Lot payments $ 10,000.00 Parking Staff $ 5,998.00 $ 10,600.00 Total $ 49,135.831 $ 35,600.00 TABLE B Big Music Fest Deposit $ 70,000.00 $ 70,000.00 Direct Event Expenses Road Closure $ 4,133.95 $ 5,000.00 Park Costs $ 18,000.00 $ 14,500.00 Additional Security $ 2,100.45 $ 2,200.00 Police $ 52,846.57 $ 40,000.00 Total $ 77,080.97 $ 61,700.00 Extra Event Expenses Mailout to residents $ 5,000.00 $ 7,000.00 Mirror Hangers $ 334.28 $ - Street Signage $ 1,017.00 $ 2,500.00 Additional Bylaw $ 14,000.00 $ - Total $ 20,351.281 $ 9,500.00 IF1 - 7 Once the expense numbers are finalized in Table A (city responsibilities), any shortfall in the budget for year one of Big Music Fest will be offset by the 2014 operating budget for Special Events. In addition, "Extra Event Expenses" noted in Table B will also be covered through existing 2014 operating budgets. In future years there is significant opportunity to capitalize on the opportunity to receive a portion of ticket sales ($2 per ticket) sold through identified city outlets. Should the festival return to McLennan Park the parking/shuttle strategy will need to be reviewed based on the uncertainty around the economics of the parking/shuttle model. The deposit that was provided by the promoter was sufficient to cover the majority of the projected event related costs of the first year event. If direct event related expenses from Table B (BMF responsibilities) exceed the $70,000 deposit provided by the promoter in advance of the event, those costs will be billed back to BMF. As with any large festival that is hosted within our city significant staff resources are required in order to ensure a successful, enjoyable and safe experience for the attendees. This often means that staff will work extra hours during their "off time" to respond to inquiries, work through logistics, meet with suppliers, do extra site visits, etc. based on their pride and passion for delivering world class events for our community. Big Music Fest was no different in that our staff went the extra mile and were able to successfully manage the largest year one festival in the city's history while maintaining the same high level of service to the many festivals within our portfolio. Other large events that took place in the weeks leading up to and post BMF included Canada Day, 11 Days of Awesome, Cruising On King, Stanley Cup visit, Rock and Rumble and the Kitchener Blues Festival. Summary Based on a number of indicators and feedback from the community, local businesses and attendees, Big Music Fest 2014 was a success for our community and region. The festival was the latest addition to existing diverse, high quality music festivals including the Kitchener Blues Festival, Waterloo Jazz Festival, Rock The Mill, Kultrun World Music Festival and KOI Music Festival. In the months leading up to the festival staff listened to and gathered feedback on the festival from the community in the McLennan Park area. This 2-way communication was used to implement plans that mitigated the disruption to the area residents and businesses and maximized the positive outcomes leading to the success of the festival. Despite the challenges that were identified with hosting a large scale event in McLennan Park for the first time, the park performed very well. The park's design allowed ample room for the audience, various ticketed areas, a midway and the vendor/food court areas throughout the park. In addition, we were able to work with the Big Music Fest team to keep the dog park and bike runs open to the public throughout the festival. IF1 - 8 The festival was able to showcase the City of Kitchener to an international audience over the course of the three days. During this time we welcomed visitors for multi-day stays in our city from as far away as Australia, Nunavut, a number of US states and all points in between. Staff have begun discussions with Big Music Fest to develop plans for the 2015 festival. This includes reviewing the opportunity to return to McLennan Park and other locations throughout the city. If the venue were to change from McLennan Park to a different city owned venue the "New Large Scale Event Guidelines" would be implemented. ALIGNMENT WITH CITY OF KITCHENER STRATEGIC PLAN: The Big Music Fest aligns with the following areas of the City's Strategic Plan: Quality of Life — Nurture a sense of pride and community, a focus on vitality; Leadership and Community Engagement — promote informed decisions that last, make it easy to get involved; Development— creative people live in creative communities. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: As detailed above. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT: CONSULT - Over the past several weeks staff and council have gathered feedback through surveys with the neighbourhood associations, their members and residents around McLennan Park after the event to provide feedback from a resident perspective regarding the impact the three day festival had on the neighbourhood. In addition, staff met internally with key partners to review areas of success and opportunities of improvement for future years of the festival. INFORM — This report has been posted to the City's website with the agenda in advance of the council / committee meeting ACKNOWLEDGED BY: Jeff Willmer, CAO IF1 - 9