After a timely face-to-face meeting for three Pemberton representatives with a key Live Nation official, Pemberton’s mayor expects to know by mid to late September whether there’s a future for a 2011 edition of the Pemberton Festival.

And if the landmark event can’t come back in 2011, three years after the inaugural festival, Mayor Jordan Sturdy said his personal feeling is that the loss of momentum each year could potentially sink the event for good.

Sturdy, Village of Pemberton Chief Administrative Officer Daniel Sailland and Cam McIvor of Ravens Crest Developments, representing the 2008 Pemberton Festival landowners, last week travelled to England to make a presentation to Shane Bourbonnais, the Live Nation official who spearheaded the festival and is now the company’s president of talent for international music.

Sturdy said “significant progress” has been made on the issues that stand in the way of a hoped-for future return of the event that drew some 40,000 spectators and a galaxy of music stars to the Pemberton Valley. Now, the “time was right to meet face to face and discuss future Pemberton Festivals,” he said.

Asked for a sense of how the discussions went, Sturdy said, “My opinion is that we had a very productive meeting that was very timely.”

He declined to get into specifics about what progress has been made on issues that have been identified, such as the liquor licensing specifications, high policing costs and transportation questions.

“I can’t speak to any specifics. Certainly the police have been very cooperative and willing to look at different models. I certainly believe they understand the value this event has to the community and the corridor — that’s been very positive,” Sturdy said on Tuesday (Aug. 31).

Efforts have concentrated on finding solutions and proposals that would work for everyone and ensure future festivals would be successful on a number of levels, including the financial side and the important question of customer experiences, Sturdy said.

“There’s a whole range of objectives that we’re trying to move forward… It really is about the whole big picture,” Sturdy said.

McIvor has stepped forward this year to spearhead the creation of a model that would entice Live Nation to return to the Spud Valley, engaging consultants who were tasked with talking to the RCMP about models for policing that could cut costs and exploring options for setting up liquor licensing on the site.

Local officials and business leaders have also been working to address the issues noted about the inaugural festival. Sturdy stressed how important the event was for the community, and the need to actively do what needs to be done to secure its return.

Visions of a 2009 event were undone when site use permits were approved too late in the day for proper planning, according to statements from Live Nation officials.

In January of this year, Live Nation released a statement that doused hopes for a 2010 edition of the event, saying Pemberton Festival planning was “on hold while we work with local officials on issues which will make the festival financially feasible for us.”

Sturdy said he returned Monday night (Aug. 30) from the five-day visit to England for the face-to-face meeting with Bourbonnais. Reached Tuesday, McIvor declined to comment about the meeting and the progress in addressing issues. There was no response by press time to an email sent to Bourbonnais on Tuesday.

The meeting’s timing was good because it’s an important period for planning approaching events, Sturdy said, estimating that acts are likely being booked for the 2011 festival season right now.

“I would expect by mid to late September we’ll know one way or the other whether we’re moving ahead or not (for 2011),” Sturdy said.

And if the Pemberton Festival misses a third year and can’t come back in 2011, Sturdy wondered whether it will ever return. With each year that passes, he said, momentum is lost and it becomes more challenging “to get the ball rolling again.”

“It’s never really been off our radar… It’s important that we get it back sooner rather than later,” he said.