Laketown will rock this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
The long weekend won’t seem long enough as music fans enjoy everything from classic rock to up and coming acts.
Loverboy, Trooper, Glass Tiger, The Sam Roberts Band, Honeymoon Suite, and lots, lots more will be playing on two stages as Wideglide Entertainment kicks off its first ever Laketown Rock Festival at the big Laketown Ranch site at Meade Creek May 19-21.
Erin Richards, Wideglide Entertainment’s marketing manager, said the first-annual Laketown Rock Festival has been well received by the local community so far.
“People are excited by the lineup of bands at the festival,” she said.
“It will be a combination of old, classic rock bands, like Glass Tiger and Sam Roberts, mixed with about 10 more regional bands who will be playing current, modern rock. We think the festival will go over well.”
Main stage action starts Friday at 5 p.m. with Malahat, then it’s Band of Rascals, Matt Mays, and then The Sam Roberts Band.
Trooper and Loverboy have pride of place on Saturday night, with Honeymoon Suite and Glass Tiger closing out the whole event on Sunday night.
All the amenities from Sunfest are back, including performers struttin’ their stuff on on a massive stage, lots of great music on The Flats Stage, down by the vendor village, camping, and lots of room to enjoy the show with all your pals.
Last year, with Sunfest holding its first ever country music festival at the new site at Laketown Ranch, every effort was made to ensure that traffic for that huge event would not be a problem and, for the most part, it was not.
Now, in 2017, organizers have had a whole year to work out any hitches and they’ll be ready for this festival, which, as it’s on its first time out, is expected to draw about 3,000 people — a far cry from the crowd of more than ten times that number who flocked to the venue for Carrie Underwood and Dierks Bentley last summer.
However, tickets have been flying out the door.
Richards said about 300 local people have been hired to help with the festival, and all of the festival’s suppliers are local as well.
“We’ll see what we can learn from this event, and determine ways we can do to make it even better next year,” she said.
General admission passes that cover all three days are $129. And kids 12 and under get in free to the general admission area but must book a ticket. See https://laketownrock.com/ticket/general-admission/
If you’re interested in a shuttle bus to the Ranch, Social Coast is running a $5 shuttle from Lake Cowichan and other buses are being offered for out-of-towners.
For details and bus schedules, see https://laketownrock.com/shuttle-service/