Hopes for the swift return of the Pemberton Festival took a hit this week, as the officials with concert producers Live Nation said plans to stage a second edition of the mammoth music festival are on hold while the company works with local officials to address issues that will make the event “financially feasible” for them.

Shane Bourbonnais, now Live Nation’s London-based president of talent for international music, sent a statement to The Question on Monday (Jan. 18) that he said followed weeks of internal conversations about the festival.

“For the time being, we have put plans to stage the next Pemberton Festival on hold while we work with local officials on issues which will make the festival financially feasible for us. We hope that we will be able to bring back the Festival to Pemberton at some point in the future,” the statement said.

Live Nation’s inaugural Pemberton Festival drew approximately 40,000 concertgoers and some of the world’s biggest acts to the Spud Valley in July 2008. But the company called off the event for 2009, saying that the approval to use the agriculturally valuable festival site again came too late for them to plan the encore event properly for that year.

Last January, Bourbonnais told The Question that Live Nation officials would be turning their attention to 2010 and trying to smooth the way to bring an improved festival back to Pemberton.

On Monday, he wrote in an email to The Question that Live Nation still does want to come back to Pemberton, if they can sort out the most pressing issues and cost questions.

“We need to sort (the issues) out as well as work on the costs to produce the event, so that we can run a festival that provides a great experience for the people that attend (and) the community and is profitable for all involved. If we can achieve the above, we want to come back,” he wrote.

Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy and Susie Gimse, director of Electoral Area C and a Village of Pemberton councillor, have been communicating with local and provincial officials and stakeholders about addressing issues that could stand in the way of the festival’s return to the valley.

Gimse said Monday’s statement didn’t come as a surprise.

“I’m not surprised. It is late already to be planning an event for 2010,” Gimse said, adding that she still believes the festival could return to Pemberton in the future but “we don’t anticipate that it will be back for 2010.”

Sturdy said he thinks it’s “unlikely” that there will be a 2010 festival, but he feels certain that if Live Nation officials aren’t at all interested in returning to the valley then they would have pulled the plug.

“We are working with them, and if they weren’t interested at all, I have every confidence they would tell us that,” he said, adding, “We’re putting significant work into it… I remain committed to attempting to host the event again in the future.”

Sturdy and Gimse said Live Nation has identified key questions relating to policing costs and liquor licensing for the festival, and there seems to be a willingness in the provincial government and associated agencies to resolve the issues.

“I have been very happy to see the level of support, and the willingness to discuss solutions, from all the parties,” Sturdy said. “I think there’s general support for the Pemberton Festival everywhere I go, and all the people that I talk to, be it the RCMP or the provincial government, there’s a willingness there which always sets up a good footing to come to a mutually satisfying agreement.”

Gimse said the Province is “certainly aware of some of the obstacles, (and) they’ve committed to working with us to resolve them.”

Gimse said the policing costs for the 2008 edition the festival were “substantially more” than those for other Live Nation events or Merritt’s country music festival, so that needs to be understood and addressed with perhaps a different model to achieve safety and security.

Sturdy said the variables that determine the policing costs “are being assessed” to come to a solution that works for everyone, and that the question is closely tied to the liquor licensing issue.

Given the significant lineups at the 2008 festival to get into the licensed areas, Sturdy said there’s a desire to “simplify things and go to a more European experience, where you don’t just corral all the drinkers.” He said one idea is to license part of the festival site in its entirety. However, no such type of licensing currently exists in B.C. for festival-style situations, so the question and its ramifications are being investigated.

Sturdy said some people have been contracted to carry out the work of addressing the issues and approaches, and they are shooting to come up with some possible solutions by the end of the month.

The throngs of people and spectacular entertainment at the inaugural event brought accompanying estimates of millions of dollars in spending in the region, significant publicity for Pemberton and raves about the area’s scenery.

The landmark event also created some concerns about its impact on the agricultural value of the site on which the hordes descended and its security, traffic and waste collection issues.