The City has received many complaints about the recent Festival of Lights from residents of downtown Charlottetown. I’ve heard others call these people “whiners”. I can tell you, these people have very legitimate complaints. I’ve heard some horrible stories about the things residents had to endure over the course of this event.
On the other hand, I’ve had members of the business community tell me how important and successful this festival is, and how we need to maintain it downtown.
In my opinion, something needs to change — either the demographic the concerts cater to, or the location of the concerts, or both. I recently spoke to a friend who played a leading role when the Festival of Lights was originally conceived. It was also his opinion that the festival had “gone off the rails”.
Certainly the people of Charlottetown and PEI are divided over what constitutes “success” where the Festival of Lights is concerned. But consider the email below, received by the Mayor, from a managing editor of a Southern California magazine who was here to write a travel article (the email is published with permission but name is withheld by request):
Dear Mayor Lee,
I was in Charlottetown during the recent Festival of Lights. This was my first visit to your city and to PEI. I was an assignment for [name withheld] Magazine, for which I serve as managing editor. I stayed at the Rodd Crowbush Golf & Beach Resort in Lakeside, Dalvay-by-the-Sea, and Hillhurst Inn, and have written a travel article for the magazine’s August issue.
I must admit I was quite dismayed by the crowd that was attracted to the Festival of Lights. I have traveled widely throughout the world, but I cannot remember encountering a ruder bunch of people than I did in Charlottetown. Anywhere I went in town, my ears were assaulted by young people using the “F” word with every breath. Moreover, young people called out to pedestrians as they drove by, making fun of how they looked or dressed and assaulting them with crude comments. Not only is this rude behavior in general, but I was very surprised that I encountered such poor manners in Canada. I have made perhaps 15 trips to your beautiful country over the years and have always been met by friendly, kind, generous, well-mannered citizens. The behavior I noted during the Festival of Lights was rather shocking.
I would suggest that you re-evaluate the way you celebrate Canada Day in Charlottetown. I am sure that the citizens are not so rude–Scott, Heidi, and Fiona at Hillhurst Inn are wonderful people–but you are attracting to your fair city people who just don’t know how to behave because of the musicians you are headlining during this weekend.
Best regards,
[name withheld]
Something needs to give. I’m not suggesting the Festival of Lights be scrapped, but in a province so heavily dependent on tourism — and in a world where everyone is a potential travel writer — we need to re-focus this festival to showcase the best of our community, not the worst.
I am a longtime critic of the Festival of Lights, and while I’ve always been annoyed by the noise, and beer bottles on my lawn, and associated issues, the fundamental issue that has always bothered me the most is the unwillingness of the Festival of Lights organizers to acknowledge that they are holding their festival in the midst of our residential neighbourhood, and that, as such, their event interferes with the quite enjoyment of our properties and our community.
In the 7 years we have lived on Prince Street — in the heart of the affected area — we have never once received communication from the Festival of Lights. They have never warned us what was to come, never apologized for what has happened, never attempted to engage us as a community to alleviate our concerns, or work to enhance the community aspects of the festival.
I don’t think the solution the Festival of Lights problem is to return to the olden days of a flatbed truck in Victoria Park with a local country band and a dunk tank.
But nor do I think the current model is sustainable, if only because it is going to ever more quickly erode the attractiveness of downtown Charlottetown as a place to live.
I attended a number of Festival of Lights activities this year, and would like to offer a few observations and suggestions:
- Firstly, the family-themed events offered on June 30th and July 1st were excellent. It was a wonderful idea to offer the free inflatable slides, obstacles courses, petting zoo, etc. on the north side of Founders Hall. My wife and parents were down there with my two children (three and six) on June 30th, and we all happily came back for more on July 1st: the line-ups were quite long on the second day, but that was probably unavoidable, given the numbers attending. The volunteers certainly seemed to be doing their best to keep things moving, and were all very pleasant and helpful.
Similarly, it was a great idea — and very much appreciated — to offer children a $7 general admission bracelet for the midway on the south side of Founders Hall, and to allow parents to accompany their children on rides for free. I would also commend the company running the midway: their staff were all very pleasant and professional.
The mix of vendors, entertainment, information tents, etc offered in the waterfront parking lot was also good, though the lack of shade was a bit punishing on such a hot day as July 1st. Perhaps some “shade stations” with big beach/patio umbrellas could be offered in future?
- My wife and I also attended the Collective Soul/Tragically Hip concert on the evening of June 30th. Again, there was much to admire: the lighting, sound system, display screen, and the music itself were all very good. The overall venue was crowded, but certainly adequate for the numbers on hand, and seemed reasonably well laid-out. The line-up to get in looked daunting at first, but moved very quickly, and the security staff at the entry-way kept things flowing along well. I would suggest that the security searches themselves were quite perfunctory, but were hopefully sufficient to deter or catch many of those who might otherwise have smuggled in illicit substances.
I would say, however, that the security staff did a poor job of catching and controlling those who were intoxicated: my best estimate would be that easily 20% of the people I saw inside the venue were drunk or otherwise impaired, with predictable results; there was a considerable amount of pushing and yelling, fire-crackers going off, and everything from drinks to footwear being thrown in the air, to say nothing of a pervasive fog of marijuana smoke. I suppose a certain amount of this type of thing is to be expected at an outdoor rock concert, and my wife and I regarded most of the goings-on with a mixture of mild irritation and amusement, but there was certainly a sense towards the end of the evening that things could get out of hand. When an event organizer allows matters to get to that point, especially with such a large crowd, then they are truly playing with fire, as widespread destruction and injury become a real possibility: I would suggest a more active and visible security presence patrolling inside the concert venue would help keep things a little more contained.
This goes to the besetting problem for the Festival, which is, of course, the disgusting behaviour of a small percentage of attendees, who regard the event as a license to rampage throughout the lower downtown before, during, and, most especially, after the evening concerts. It is appalling that things have been allowed to go on like this for so many years, but it would be even more disgraceful if a failure to do something about it led to an otherwise worthy event being cancelled wholesale. My first suggestion on this is as follows: no major concerts or similar events should be considered for Charlottetown, at any venue, until the city police are given a central lock-up (“drunk tank”) and the mandate to use it. It is ludicrous that police officers and vehicles have to be taken off the streets for the better part of an hour per trip to transport drunks to Sleepy Hollow, and I imagine this contributes to the “move along, move along” police attitude that gives so many offenders the virtual freedom to smash, vomit, pee, and brawl their way through the streets. This is not, of course, an issue specific to the Festival of Lights: I know there was discussion several years ago of a “mini-holding” facility for Charlottetown Police as one measure to deal with the more general problem of rowdiness downtown, but it seems no action was taken.
Also, by the police department’s own description, 15 extra officers were on hand for concert duty, including traffic: that is not a “large” force for an event of the magnitude of the Festival of Lights, and sufficient reinforcements need to be drafted in to ensure a police presence at every major intersection throughout the lower downtown. That would require a significant number of extra officers (perhaps 30 or 40), but it is certainly feasible, given a sufficient budget, and the City and Festival organizers need to be begin discussions immediately on how to make it happen. The business owners and residents of downtown (many of whom were there long before the Festival was even dreamt of) absolutely deserve this protection, to say nothing of the huge majority of event attendees who are law-abiding and wish to enjoy themselves peaceably. As an aside, I would mention that reports such as Peter Rukavina’s regarding the lack of communication/consultation from Festival organizers with local residents are utterly appalling and need to be investigated and addressed.
Much as I enjoyed the Festival of Lights, then, if there is not a very large and very active security and police presence at next year’s event, I’m afraid I will have to add my voice to the chorus of those calling for its removal. I would expect to see RCMP reinforcements patrolling alongside Charlottetown officers, and a tactical squad and dog handlers standing discreetly (but visibly) off to one side near the entry/exit points for the evening concerts. As for traffic control, there needs to be more of it, and I would suggest letting police cadets and RCMP auxiliaries handle this duty so that the badge-wearing officers are free for crowd control. Finally, of course, there absolutely must be complete and open consultation with downtown residents and business owners by Festival organizers.
I realize this will all be expensive and time-consuming to arrange, especially the extra security/policing, but it’s just a fact of life that this is what major concerts and similar events require, especially when held in the middle of an urban centre: if we can’t provide that level of public safety, then we’d better admit it now, and adjust event offerings accordingly, before someone gets killed. Certainly, there should be no repeat of the sort of scenario my wife and I experienced leaving the concert on the night of June 30th: in the two-block walk to our car, we saw a score of people visibly drunk, and not a single police officer (except for one driving by on a motorcycle, presumably on traffic detail). Nor was this an isolated occurrence: I was helping out with a conference at the Delta Prince Edward during the last several days of June, and saw many instances of drunken youths wandering unchecked in the blocks around the concert venue. In this sort of environment, the surprise is not that Charlottetown has experienced drunken vandalism and rowdyism during that Festival of Lights, but that we have not had far worse. What makes this particularly exasperating is that it is all unfolding in a very small geographic area: “blanket” police coverage of Charlottetown’s lower downtown and waterfront would be challenging, but certainly feasible. If we can’t afford that, then we can’t afford the Festival, at least not in its existing incarnation.
In closing, I am not persuaded by arguments that the Festival be moved elsewhere; doing so would eliminate a lot of the benefit to downtown businesses, which is one of the main reasons for having the Festival in the first place, and would needlessly penalize those (like me) who want do family-friendly things and also go to a concert or two. In any case, all of the objections raised about Waterfront Landing apply in almost equal measure to the Charlottetown Raceway (witness the experience of the Black-Eyed Peas and Aerosmith concerts), and moving to Upton Farm simply replaces one set of logistical problems with another (most notably transport). Furthermore, if the residents of that area object to a car dealership, I cannot imagine they would be too enthralled at the prospect of an outdoor rock concert, and the Save Upton Farm lobby would presumably be similarly unimpressed. Managed and policed properly, the Festival can, and should, survive and thrive in downtown, without violating the rights of those who live and work there.
I’m not saying the police don’t work hard and do there job accordingly but there is only so much room at the Inn. Sleppy Hollow is only so big and I would imagine that it was over full during the festival. Any numbers on how many more they could have handled there? I for One started taking my family to Rustico this year and I won’t be back to the Festival of lights.
Council is, it seems, holding a public meeting on Tuesday, July 22 at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall on the Festival of Lights issue.
I just received word from City Hall that the meeting tomorrow is closed, i.e., not a public meeting.