A music festival was recently shut down while it was setting up in the 麻豆社国产backcountry.
The advertised a secret location for a weekend festival Aug. 22 and 23 and sold tickets for the event online.
According to the Ministry of Forests, natural resource officers responded to the as the festival was setting up.
Officers identified the organizers who were in violation of section 60 of the Land Act, a spokesperson for the Ministry told The Chief.
In addition, the event was contrary to the Forest Recreation Regulations.
The officers wrote trespass notices to the individuals as per section 59 of the Land Act.
The organizers then left the site and removed all of their equipment, according to the Ministry.
“For-profit events on Crown land require authorization to ensure public safety and that the environment, stakeholder and insurance considerations are taken into account and addressed,” the Ministry spokesperson said, adding that officers have been working with the RCMP, the Conservation Officers Service and municipalities to educate music event organizers on the requirements for the use of Crown land.
“We did not set out to do anything other than create a nice weekend and showcase local artists,” reads an emailed statement to The Chief from the “Forest Cat Team.”
“The rangers did come, which was not the reason we postponed the event. We were going to just move to another location. But we actually did have a COVID exposure during set up since we were there since Tuesday, so regardless of what happened with the rangers, we would have had to postpone it anyway, because we care about the safety of the people at the event,” reads the statement.
“We worked very hard to put on this festival, we had over 50-plus local artists coming to play, we planned it for over three months, and everyone involved is artists and we all had a hard year already because of COVID, and the entire idea behind the festival is to get local artists playing shows again, so this situation was very hard on everyone involved. And we had every safety measure in place for this event, including volunteer paramedics, security, harm reduction, a cleanup crew and a COVID temperature-test system at the entrance.”
The statement added that the location was chosen for the festival because organizers knew of other events that had been thrown there over the past year that were not shut down by officials.
The was originally rescheduled for Sept. 17 to 19.
On the website, the sold-out three-day pass was listed for $99.
The rescheduled event was not happening in Squamish, but instead on a farm on private land, the organizers said.
The event’s website stated the event would be at a “secret location just outside Squamish.”
Then, on Aug. 31, the festival posted on Instagram that the event has been postponed to 2022.
Ticket holders for the original August event who can’t attend the rescheduled festival won’t be getting a refund.
“It’s really a sad situation for everyone involved, including the ticket holders. It’s not like we don’t care; we definitely do. The festival is run by a small group of female musicians, it is our first event, and we are not professional event organizers but musicians/ DJs that missed performing,” reads the statement.
The spokesperson added that the majority of original ticket holders have been understanding, noting that approximately 150 people were to attend.
“That is the risk with all of these types of events right now with COVID… That is why we put the waiver in place because we are a small group of artists and not super-rich, so we had to put that in place in case this happened. We feel that we did the right thing in postponing it, even though some people are upset. We did not want to be the next COVID super-spreader event. It was a hard choice, but we believe it was the right one.”
Dan Pagely, the District of Squamish’s acting general manager of community services told The Chief that the event was a topic of discussion at the 麻豆社国产Visitor Management Working Group meetings, which are comprised of representatives from the provincial government, the District, RCMP, 麻豆社国产Nation, Tourism 麻豆社国产and local recreation groups.
“The enforcement agencies within this group will continue to enforce any bylaws or provincial acts that are not complied with,” Pagely said.
Legitimate outdoor organized gatherings with capacity restrictions are allowed during Step 3 of the Province’s Restart Plan, but they must have permits and follow all provincial health office and Vancouver Coastal Health guidelines, as well as any local event permit requirements, he added.
“An added concern is that backcountry events pose an increased fire safety risk, and remote events of this nature can pose challenges for our first responders in terms of both resources and road access. So yes, it is a concern.”
Natural Resources officers will follow up if Forest Cat or any other rave organizers decide to use Crown land again, the Ministry said.
**Please note, the headline of this story was changed after it was posted to avoid confusion regarding who shut down the festival. Later, the story was updated to reflect that the September festival was postponed to 2022.
