| Last updated at 8:08 AM on 18/12/07 |
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Submitted
Photo
GOIN’ UP IN GANDER – Great Big Sea members, from left, Sean McCann, Bob
Hallett, and Alan Doyle will be coming to Gander this August. The band
will perform at Cobb’s Pond Rotary Park during the town’s annual
Festival of Flight.
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Great Big Sea coming to Gander 
BRIAN SCOTT The Beacon
One of Newfoundland and Labrador’s best known bands is coming to Gander.
On Aug. 2, Great Big Sea will take to the stage at an outdoor concert
at Cobb’s Pond Rotary Park as a part of the town’s 50th anniversary
celebrations during its annual Festival of Flight.
The town announced last week plans are being put in place for a
full lineup of music acts to perform throughout the day starting at 2
p.m. before Great Big Sea takes to the stage that evening.
However, no other music acts have been confirmed as of yet.
The Saturday night during the summer festival has typically been the
date of a large concert, the kitchen party, consisting of a mixture of
local and big music acts, including the Stampeders and Dr. Hook, at the
community centre.
According to Coun. Rob Anstey, chair of the town’s tourism and special
events committee, the Great Big Sea concert next summer will not be
replacing the kitchen party. In fact, that concert will still go ahead,
only a night earlier.
“We’re going to go ahead with the kitchen party, too,” said Coun.
Anstey. “The last few years, we’ve brought in big mainland bands, but
we found last year we had local bands in from around the island and
people seemed to enjoy them just as much.
“This year, we’re changing the kitchen party. We’re having it on Friday
night. Then Saturday afternoon, down at Cobb’s Pond, gates will open at
12 (noon), we’re starting at 2 p.m., we’ll be having a number of
different bands on … and Great Big Sea will go on stage around 8:30.”
He added it’s too early to discuss logistics of the concert, such as
the location of the stage, but said the town hopes to have a plan for
the park completed before then, including renovations that could see
the park’s parking lot relocated a little further down Magee Road near
the former railway tracks. The park’s current parking lot would then be
likely turned into a field.
He also added it’s too early to say whether or not other events will be
taking place at the park during the same time as the concert.
And while the town is planning one of its biggest concerts in
recent history, don’t expect future concerts of this magnitude to
become a regular event.
“We’ll see how it goes,” said Coun Anstey. “We don’t have plans to get
into these big concerts that are going on around the island. There are
enough of these around, and last year Grand Falls-Windsor lost money on
theirs, so we don’t want to get into doing that.
“If we do look at it and say it went over well, it would only be a
particular type of band that we’d get in here. We’re not going to bring
in a big, expensive band from the mainland. I don’t think you’ll ever
see us get into that.”
Tickets go on sale Tuesday morning.
17/12/07
http://www.ganderbeacon.ca/index.cfm?sid=90503&sc=307
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