{"id":16431,"date":"2011-08-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-08-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/regional\/making-friends-in-ancaster\/"},"modified":"2022-12-15T21:24:24","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T21:24:24","slug":"making-friends-in-ancaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/hamilton\/making-friends-in-ancaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Making friends in Ancaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jamie Tennant<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Friday, August 5, the Festival of Friends will host what may become the biggest concert this city has ever seen. The artist is huge \u2013 City & Colour, a.k.a. songwriter Dallas Green, whose new album went to number one in Canada \u2013 and it\u2019s his only Ontario stop all summer long. On top of that, the concert is free, and the venue can host an enormous number of people.<\/p>\n

Oh, but wait, there\u2019s that elephant in the room again. The venue.<\/p>\n

When the Festival announced it would be leaving its ancestral home in Gage Park for a new location at the Ancaster Fairgrounds, there was an incredible public outcry. Some lamented the loss of a high-profile event in our downtown. Others were certain it was somehow a cash grab. Ultimately, though, Festival Director Loren Lieberman and his board of directors remain confident it was the best choice given the circumstances. (Note: it would be disingenuous for the author not to admit his connection with said Board, so you can choose your sides \u2013 \u2018author knows what he\u2019s talking about\u2019 or \u2018author has vested interest\u201d \u2013 with some element of clarity).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a multitude of reasons for the relocation,\u201d says Lieberman. \u201cIssues with the park, issues with the neighbourhood, issues related to growth. We had to move the Festival or redesign the Festival and shrink it. That\u2019s the easiest answer, but that goes against everyone\u2019s principle \u2013 and not even just business. To try and do less, I find to be offensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt City & Colour would have been too big for Gage Park (2009\u2019s Finger Eleven show saw the park bursting at the seams). Beyond that, however, Lieberman sticks by his claim that the Festival mandate is to entertain, for free, as many people as possible \u2013 and the move to Ancaster facilitates that. In a way, he even sees some of the negativity over the move as a positive thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you care enough to punch me in the face, then okay,\u201d he says. \u201cI think the worst thing would be to announce that we\u2019re changing our venue and there\u2019s no reaction. That would be terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every punch in the head I get walking on James St. North, I might get high fives walking in Lime Ridge Mall,\u201d he adds. For Lieberman, it\u2019s about getting people to come to the festival \u2013 whether they\u2019re from downtown or the mountain, Guelph or Brantford, Toronto or Oshawa, or farther (one woman from the Netherlands plans to attend to see Jon Anderson of Yes on Sunday evening).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Festival can\u2019t be myopic\u201d Lieberman says, \u201cIt\u2019s not just a neighbourhood festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are disadvantages to the relocation-including transportation. However, there will be free shuttle busses available, the details of which will be posted on the FoF website. Then again, there are inarguable advantages, too. Weather, for example, will no longer ruin a day and cause vendors and artisans to lose sales. There is plenty happening indoors \u2013 including two stages, and vendors both inside and out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making it an indoor festival,\u201d says Lieberman, \u201cbut I think it\u2019s significant that if suddenly it [the weather] becomes shitty, ride it out and take in some of the other attractions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Festival will also feature a Children\u2019s Pavilion, with a children\u2019s stage, a renewed focus on artisan and craftsman vendors, and a few new programs such as the \u201cSpectacle\u201d stage, which apes on Elvis Costello\u2019s program of the same name. Then, of course, there\u2019s the music \u2013 City & Colour (Friday), The Tea Party & Arkells (Saturday), America and Jon Anderson (Sunday), and many other local artists through the Fairgrounds throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though the location of the Festival has changed, not much else about it has changed. One thing that will never change, says Lieberman, is that the festival will forever remain free.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe forget this as Hamiltonians – there is something serious for free in this community,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s not standard in Toronto or Buffalo. Free summer entertainment is a Hamilton concept, and we\u2019re very lucky to have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

JAMIE TENNANT<\/strong> is the Program Director at 93.3 CFMU FM, the campus-based community station at McMaster University.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jamie Tennant On Friday, August 5, the Festival of Friends will host what may become the biggest concert this city has ever seen. The artist is huge \u2013 City & Colour, a.k.a. songwriter Dallas ...","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8065],"tags":[943,292,19],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26828,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431\/revisions\/26828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cekan.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}