Gate House Theatre President Gord Oppen was thrilled with how successful the North Island Music Festival was this year.
“I think it was a rare combination of everything working perfectly,” he said. “On this particular year, the weather cooperated, all the bands performed exceptionally well, we had all the volunteers we needed and all the sponsorships from the business community. This year was a unique success that I think would be difficult to recreate.”
Oppen noted between the combination of ticket sales, vendors, crafters, sponsors and volunteers, “we think throughout the entire day we had 900 people come through, that in itself is a pretty great accomplishment.”
He said he was particularly impressed by the 12-piece band that played in the evening, but the real highlight for him was “the sheer fact we were able to attract as many volunteers as we did to help us deliver the festival in the way that we did. That was my proudest accomplishment, that we had that kind of quantity of people, in excess of 80 volunteers, at a time when volunteerism is on the decline. This says something about how important these kind of gatherings are for communities.”
While all the expenses that went into bringing the festival to life are not yet finalized, it appears they were able to generate a good bit of money that will help sustain the Gate House Theatre.
“This will help us fund a number of our youth initiatives,” added Oppen.
