The organizers of one of Fredericton’s favourite music festivals have called it a day.
After seven years of hosting FredRock, which has entertained thousands of concert fans, Mike Babineau and Nick Zildjan are taking a break.
“It’s taken a toll on us and it’s time to move on to other things,” said Babineau.
The two concert heads now have different priorities.
Babineau co-owns Cora’s breakfast restaurant while Zildjan recently started working at the University of New Brunswick in their athletics department.
They say the 15 to 20 hours per week nearly year round they had to devote to FredRock has become difficult to do.
“We joke about it every single year. At the end of the festival we say that’s it we’re done,” says Babineau jokingly. “We sleep for a couple weeks and then we get back together and start working on the next one but after this one we just had a different feeling in our gut.”
“The biggest reason is Nick and I are moving in different directions,” Babineau says.
Babineau admits a slow economy and weak Canadian dollar contributed to the decision as well, and says anyone looking to get into the concert promoting business should make sure they do their homework.
“Be careful,” he says. “It’s a big endeavor and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose a lot of money.”
Comments