Tens of thousands of people are expected to pack Vancouver’s Stanley Park as the inaugural Skookum music festival is now underway.
The three-day event has the city’s skyline for a backdrop and headliners including the Killers, Florence + the Machine, Arkells and Metric.
It has been a long road for festival producers BrandLive, the company behind the Squamish Music Festival, which was cancelled in 2016.
Squamish wasn’t the only big-ticket B.C. festival to go belly up in recent years, with the Pemberton Music Festival abruptly filing for bankruptcy last summer.
Festival director Paul Runnals said the team believes Skookum can avoid that fate.
“The model we’re looking at here is a city-based festival so no camping, no extraordinary travel, and lodging and transportation costs to be out of the region,” he said.
“And those, ultimately, are some of the things that drag down these festivals.”
WATCH: Skookum Festival to bring thousands of music fans to Vancouver’s Stanley Park
Festival organizers have been working with the City of Vancouver and Park Board to ensure transportation and waste are managed, and the park is protected.
“There’s a lot of work that’s been put into preserving the fields, making sure that the park as a whole is secured so that everyone has a great weekend and so that the park is in good condition when everything is done,” said Park Board spokesperson Shauna Wilton.
Planning has been underway for three years, and a crew of hundreds has been on site for the last two weeks building four stages, VIP areas, food and beverage service stations and bathrooms.
Along with the headliners, more than 50 other acts are on the schedule, along with live art, sculpture and multimedia installations.
The event is also being billed as “kid-friendly,” with kids 10 and under allowed in for free.
WATCH: Local music to be featured along big acts at Vancouver’s inaugural Skookum Festival
Skookum president Jordan Melville said bringing the event to Vancouver itself is what has him most excited.
“This city and this culture. When we did the Squamish Valley Music Festival for years it was about the music, it was about big bands, Eminem, Bruno Mars, all those kinds of people that were amazing on our stage,” he said.
“(In) Vancouver the talent is no less great… but you know, to do it in our home town… we’re from Vancouver, we built this for our city so it’s like when you see someone get drafted into the Vancouver Canucks from Vancouver.”
While VIP tickets are sold out, single-day passes for the event remain available. Parking is also sold out, and attendees are encouraged to walk, cycle, use transit or take a car-share vehicle.
The weekend forecast includes showers and periods of rain, but Runnals said he won’t let that dampen enthusiasm.
“It’s a park, it’s Vancouver, everyone is used to a little bit of rain here and there, we’re not expecting anything crazy,” he said.
“And frankly, it’s been so beautiful here all week, it’s a little dusty, and so this is dust control.”
—With files from Aaron McArthur and Paul Haysom
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