The chairs of two community festivals say their events have suffered because they were unable to locate their events in Bell Park this summer due to the $5 million renewal of the Grace Hartman Amphitheatre.

However, the city’s manager of parks, Kevan Moxam, said the venue should be ready in time for next year’s festival season, as activity at the construction site is due to resume this week.

On July 14, city council approved the proposal from the lowest bidder for the amphitheatre project, Tribury Construction of Sudbury. Tenders closed July 8.

Initial site development began in November 2009, but there had been on no activity on the site for months.

Moxam said the only possible thing left to be done next spring, after the agreed upon March 31 completion date, could be some landscaping.

He said the reason for the delay in construction this year was because the site design needed to be reworked to include more hard seating and foundation supports for an roof structure over the audience to be possibly built in the future.

What hurt us was having to pay for infrastructure that was freely available to us at Bell Park.

Derek Young,
chair of the Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games

The city also had to make sure the senior levels of government had their money in place for the project to proceed into the construction phase, Moxam added.

“The dollars are in the bank now,” he said.

He said the city may receive money funding from the province to increase the seating capacity at the amphitheatre.

Currently, the project includes 450 hard seats and 1,500 “soft” or grass area seats.

The Greater Sudbury Celtic Festival and Highland Games, which was held in late May, and the Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB), which was held July 9-11, were both hurt because they had to move away from Bell Park this year, organizers said.

“Our attendance was good since we were on a site on Notre Dame Avenue, a major road artery,” Derek Young, chair of the Celtic Festival, said.

“What hurt us was having to pay for infrastructure that was freely available to us at Bell Park.”

He said the stage cost $5,100, an expense not incurred at Bell Park. Another $2,900 was paid for portable washroom facilities. Since Bell Park is equipped with permanent washrooms facilities, it was a new expense for the festival.

These costs added up to a loss of $8,000 out of a festival budget of $43,000, money which could have been invested in next year’s festival, Young said.

NFLB moved to Laurentian University’s athletic field this year. According to Ross Kelly, NLFB chair, attendance was down.

He said for festival patrons, it “just wasn’t the same as Bell Park.”

Kelly said people associate the various events with Bell Park, and enjoy the park setting by the lake.

“I think this points out how critical and important the Bell Park facility is to, not only NLFB, but the other festivals as well,” Kelly said.

He noted the festival had logistical problems, and had to cut back on music stages and other components normally part of the festival.

In an e-mail to NorthernLife.ca, Kelly also noted the vendors and crafters at the festival also suffered a “downturn in revenue.”

“NLFB is anticipating being able to celebrate its 40th anniversary next July in the new amphitheatre and refurbished park and we’re anxiously watching for signs of progress on the new facility.”