Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly is trying to attract big music acts to the city next year by offering a free venue on the Halifax Common.
Kelly will soon be putting cards in the mail to concert promoters around the world touting Halifax as a concert destination for large acts. The card boasts of the success of last year's Rolling Stones concert and offers potential incentives to promoters.
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones brave the rain for their outdoor concert on the Halifax Common in Sept. 2006.
(Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)
Halifax Regional Municipality "will provide the Common at no cost to the concert promoter and waiving the cost of municipal services when concert attendance is 40,000+," the card reads.
The services will include police, fire, parks, waste removal, medical and transit services.
"We know it's a very competitive environment out there for concerts, and for us, we're just trying to say we don't want to be overlooked," Kelly said.
"We want to at least be considered for a concert, so we're open to those negotiations."
Fred MacGillivray, chairman of Events Halifax, said Monday he's pleased by Kelly's offer to concert promoters. The move will make it easier to land major shows, he said.
"Halifax has been competitive all along, and we've said this several times. We negotiate with many concert promoters from across Canada, and around the world, and Halifax will remain to be competitive," MacGillivray said.
"But this will give us a distinct opportunity to reduce some of the costs that we had to charge for previously."
MacGillivray said these items are normally negotiated between venues and promoters.
"Obviously the mayor here has made a decision: why negotiate, why not just tell them up front that these services are available to them free of charge."
MacGillivray and Kelly fell out earlier this summer over attempts to land concerts by Justin Timberlake and The Who in September. MacGillivray accused the mayor of jeopardizing the concerts by contacting promoters himself, rather than allowing Events Halifax to handle the negotiations.
No big-name concerts are planned for Halifax this year. The Rolling Stones concert last September cost the city $50,000 after recoveries. It pumped about $8 million into the local economy.
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