Just like Eminem so eloquently stated, there were a lot of 鈥渆ffed-up鈥� people at the Squamish Valley Music Festival on Sunday (Aug. 10).聽 He was right.
Thousands were imbibing 鈥� but it definitely wasn鈥檛 the folks at Live Nation.
I鈥檝e attended every incarnation of the festival and watched it develop from a decent-sized party into a world-class event in the span of only a few years.
And after all the complaining, groaning and general uneasiness from Squamish residents over the past year I think we can say one thing for certain 鈥� these guys know what they鈥檙e doing.
Traffic was much improved, the fields were tidied up faster and things ran smoothly.
Considering the tragic occurrences in Pemberton and Penticton earlier this summer, we all know it鈥檚 no easy task to essentially keep control of tens of thousands of people over multiple days.
The key thing here is everyone at the festival, from the volunteers on, seem to know and embrace their role. Security is firm but not overbearing, staff is helpful, and it鈥檚 generally a positive environment.聽
And you know an event that basically takes over a town is doing well when the local newspaper hears hardly a peep of negative feedback.聽
Businesses were booming, the weather was perfect and people were smiling.聽
Sure, there鈥檚 a few things organizers can work on, such as improving shuttle times; cutting lines in the beer gardens; and increasing the number of portable toilets as well as entrances and exits; but this was an almost flawless event.
I still find it hard to believe that the same field that children play soccer on is where Bruno Mars danced and Eminem dropped his rhymes.聽
In fact, the festival came off so well that the No. 1 complaint both online, at the concert and on the street is the fact that Eminem referred to Squamish as Vancouver throughout his set.
It would have been nice to hear Mr. Mathers address our town but maybe it was easier to sell him on coming to Vancouver. It doesn鈥檛 really matter because he made it here and performed epically. I don鈥檛 think I will look at the Brennan Park field the same way again.
We shouldn鈥檛 worry about the slight from Eminem and just wish him a safe trip back to his home town of Cleveland.
That鈥檚 where Eight Mile is located isn鈥檛 it?
