By
Brent Mazerolle
Times & Transcript Staff
Tuesday August 28th, 2007
People are starting to put their Faith in the
Hill and picking up their tickets to see her and
Tim too.
With
perfect concert weather forecast for Saturday
and the Soul 2 Soul stage now being assembled
piece by piece at Moncton's Magnetic Hill Concert
Site, the anticipation is building for the greatest
country concert in Atlantic Canadian history.
Ticket
sales for the 2007 Country Rocks the Hill, featuring
husband and wife mega-acts Tim McGraw and Faith
Hill as the headliners, started climbing faster
yesterday than a bus full of tourists rolling
up Magnetic Hill.
Maybe
it's because the public can now wrap its collective
head for music around the concert now that it's
just five days away.
Maybe
it's because people are coming to terms with the
fact that the Labour Day Weekend is really summer's
last hurrah and they've decided to see out the
best eight weeks of the year in a big way.
But
just maybe, okay, quite likely, it's the weather
driving ticket sales this week.
That's
how concert promoter Harold Mackay sees it. "It's
always about the weather with outdoor concerts,"
he said yesterday, admitting the long range forecast
was something he'd been "tracking it all
weekend."
"If
you look at the history of it, that's what happened
last year," he said. "People really
started buying the Wednesday and Thursday before
the show," which last year featured headliners
Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson.
Last
year the forecast was not quite as promising,
with the threat of thundershowers for the evening,
which did come true at the end of the night. Despite
that, thousands of people bought into the odds
of a mostly beautiful summer day, a great many
of them purchasing their tickets the afternoon
of the day-long concert even though they had already
missed a number of opening acts.
This
year, the forecast is far more stable. AccuWeather
and The Weather Network are both calling for a
mix of cloud and sun and comfortable daytime temperatures
for a day spent outdoors. They differ on the daytime
high -- AccuWeather is predicting 19 degrees while
the Weather Network is calling for 22 degrees
-- but both agree there will be no rain. They
also agree things will cool off at night to 11
degrees so bring a sweatshirt and long pants.
History
is on the city's side for the weekend show. Unlike
many long weekends, Labour Day has historically
meant good weather in southeastern New Brunswick,
pleasant days and crisp clear nights, and the
Rolling Stones show on Labour Day weekend 2005
was a picture perfect example of that.
By
contrast, last year's big Magnetic Hill concert,
which came to a sopping wet finale, was held not
on Labour Day but rather on August 19.
Those
worried about the mud bog the concert parking
lot and some private sites became last year in
what was one of the worst downpours of the summer
can also take heart.
The
Weather Network is calling for scattered showers
the day before the concert, but only giving those
a 40 per cent chance of occurring. Accuweather
says Friday will be cloudy but is predicting 0.0
millimetres of rain.
Shane
Porter of the City of Moncton said yesterday the
city's parking lot at the concert site was now
rock solid thanks to upgrades and expected to
withstand the rain even if it did come. Meanwhile,
necessities like portable toilets and trailers
and pieces of staging were rolling in yesterday.
"It's really taking shape in a short time,"
he said.
Jane
Randall of Riverview was one of those who said
she waited until this week to commit to tickets
for Tim and Faith even though she describes herself
as a huge fan of all types of music.
"I
was there (Country Rocks the Hill) last year and
had a blast, but got really wet at the end,"
she said. "I went to the Stones in Halifax
and had a blast but got really wet. I went to
the Stones in Moncton and had a blast without
the wet, and I went to Aerosmith (in Charlottetown)
and got wet without the blast."
Adding
her voice to the chorus of people this summer
who thought both the weather and the flat venue
sabotaged the Aerosmith concert on Prince Edward
Island, she said she was more than willing nevertheless
to give outdoor music another shot, if it was
on a hillside where she could see.
"Nickelback
(on Halifax's Citadel Hill in July) was awesome,"
she said, it having been blessed both by good
weather and a sloping venue.Randall
said though she might not be the best person to
ask about the weather's effect on consumer behaviour.
"By
the end of the week, I probably would have broke
down and bought a ticket no matter what,"
she said. "I wouldn't have wanted to miss
it. It's the whole thing, the whole event, that's
the fun. The music's just part of it, if that
makes any sense."
She
pointed to the appeal of just getting away from
everything else for a whole day, the energy of
the crowd itself, and the chance to sip a few
refreshments with friends as all part of the lure
of attending huge outdoor concerts.
If
her sense of the entertainment is only partly
about what's happening on stage, Randall and thousands
of others ought to be happy. While the headliners
are getting the lion's share of the attention
as the third top grossing act in the concert business
today, Country Rocks the Hill 2007 is offering
far more than just two-and-a-half
hours of McGraw and Hill. There are actually 10
other acts on the schedule offering eight hours
of entertainment before Hill and McGraw start
their solo sets, which are then followed by a
set of them performing together.
As
for the vibe from the crowd itself, ticket sales
are on track with last year's Country Rocks the
Hill, which saw 40,000 come to Magnetic Hill,
a number that exceeded everyone's expectations.
Promoter
Harold Mackay said yesterday, "Nashville
and I would both be tickled pink with 30,000 (tickets
sold)," but with good weather in the forecast,
that number seems poised to grow.
The
final stop and only outdoor concert on Tim McGraw
and Faith Hill's Soul2Soul Tour 2007 also includes
performances by George Canyon, Leahy, Johnny Reid,
J.P. Cormier, The Divorcees, Jessie Farrell,
Shirley Albert, and Side Kixx, as well as the
yet to be announced winner of the Best New Country
Band contest, sponsored by concert promoter Power
Promotional Concepts, the City of Moncton, [here]
magazine and the Times & Transcript.
Tickets
are available online at tickets.moncton.ca or
by calling 1- 888-720-5600. VIP tickets, selling
for $215 ($172 plus taxes & services charges),
are mostly sold out, but regular admission and
children's tickets are still available.
Regular
admission tickets go for $165 ($129 taxes &
services charges). The discounted regular admission
tickets offered to the first 25,000 purchasers
are now gone. Children's tickets are $42 ($25
taxes & service charges). Proof of age 12
or under will be required at the concert gates
for those carrying children's tickets.
