Rock the Park‘s 20th year has been a bumpy one, but the beloved five-day music festival in London, Ont., lives by the motto “the show much go on” — and thanks to help from the community, Tyler Childers was able to take the stage at Harris Park on Thursday night.
The impact of hurricane Beryl brought 70 mm of rain to London (just 10 mm shy of a 1921 record) on Wednesday but staff were able to lay down straw and prepare the grounds for Nickelback to headline.
However, after more than 12,000 fans spent several hours kicking up mud and leaving behind some garbage, the park was in a sorry state Thursday morning.
“Never did we think in 20 years that a hurricane would have anything to do with Rock the Park,” Brad Jones of Jones Entertainment Group, which puts on Rock the Park, said Thursday.
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“But you know what? … if you were here when you left (Wednesday) night for Nickelback, you wouldn’t even think it was the same park.”
The quick cleanup was in part thanks to a near-immediate response to a call for volunteers.
Rock the Park posted on Facebook that it would provide tickets to anyone who could come help with the cleanup and in less than a half hour they had about 50 volunteers on site.
“We have a wonderful social media base, and people are always asking where they can help,” said Jones.
Jones said volunteers helped gather up garbage so landscaping companies could then scrape the top layer of loose mud off in order to create a solid base. Volunteers also helped spread hay and woodchips on the ground.
“The show must go on. So that’s what we’ve done for the last 20 years, and we’re not about to stop now.”
Myriah Kay, marketing director for Jones Entertainment Group, said many of the volunteers were actually concertgoers from the night before.
“A lot of people actually had come to the show last night, and they were like, ‘This was the best night of my life. And we come every year.’ So obviously the perk is to come for another night as well.”
Nickelback headlined Wednesday, Tyler Childers on Thursday, NAS will headline Friday and Bryan Adams wraps up the festival Saturday night. The full lineup can be found on Rock the Park’s website.
Neil Young with Crazy Horse was initially supposed to close out the festival but Rock the Park announced just two weeks before the festival was set to begin that Young had cancelled his summer tour, including the July 13 show.
The festival also helps raise money for local charities, raising $4 million in the last 19 years, Jones said.
— with files from Global News’ Emily Passfield
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