Killaloe Craft and Community Fair board member Taisha Levy, left, and Nirvana Fernandez, owner and
CEO of DNR Productions made a delegation to Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards council at its May 6th meeting.

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Killaloe – An event-organizing company has approached Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR) Township council with a request to begin planning an extravagant music festival that looks to draw thousands of visitors to the area. The proposal sparked a considerable debate among council members who voiced concerns over the logistics of accommodating so many and how it would impact the locals.

Nirvana Fernandez, owner and CEO of the Toronto-based Dream New Realities (DNR) Productions, was joined by Killaloe Craft and Community Fair (KCCF) board member Taisha Levy and over a dozen spectators in the gallery at KHR council’s May 6th meeting.

Mr. Fernandez first introduced council to his colleague, festival director Sig Greenebaum, who joined the meeting virtually. He touched on his background before the pair discussed the proposed site plan at the same location where the annual KCCF has been held since the mid-70s.

Leading off with a disclaimer right off the bat, he told council the event they were asking permission to begin planning is unlike anything that’s been done there before.

“I just wanted to start off by saying that this is not people coming together, using a bunch of volunteers to produce a music festival like in the past has occurred in this town,” he explained. “We’re a fully professional group, we do this for a living.”

Mr. Fernandez told council it would be heavily managed and everyone would be kept on site using a fenced perimeter. He also promised to use state-of-the-art equipment to mitigate sound pollution. He elaborated on their plan for zoning different areas of the grounds for the overnight festival.

“The idea is to bring people into the grounds and off the road and then have them searched. As you can see in your security plan, we have 16 car searchers and 16 ticket scanners. Everything is done by RFID (radio-frequency identification).”

Councillor Maureen MacMillan asked about their environmental assessment process and if they were planning on doing any land clearing. Mr. Fernandez said they would be contracting Jemtec for an evaluation on two early growth areas that used to be fields about 30 years ago.

“It is currently not a marsh or a swamp. So, before it gets to that point, bugs and mosquitoes will come out. There will be a problem for the site if it keeps going the way it’s going, but once we submit our environmental reports to the board, they’re going to make their decision.”

Coun. MacMillan asked Ms. Levy to confirm the KCCF board has not fully agreed with the plan, to which she did, adding they only learned about it a week prior.

“It’s a Catch-22,” Ms. Levy remarked. “To pitch this to our members and board, to do all that, and then to make sure that we can have a permit to do this. We can’t commit to it fully without having an environmental assessment.”

Mayor Dave Mayville made it clear the request had met some apprehension. “If you’re not committed, then you can’t come before us,” he said.

Mr. Fernandez was quick to reply, adding, “We are verbally committed, but you’re asking us to both invest money into environmental people and then also lawyers to oversee agreements. We’re asking for a tentative permit approval because we can’t even get our final permit approvals until health and safety inspects the site two days before the event.”

Mr. Fernandez began speaking again before Ms. Levy cut him off to say that the board called for an emergency meeting last week and voted to cautiously entertain the idea. “But there’s a lot of pros and cons, and a lot of things to consider, especially in the land changes,” she said.

Mayor Mayville asked Planning Committee Chair, Councillor Brian Pecoskie, whether he was willing to do a provisional, but he was quick to refuse.

Councillor Ted Browne said it’s not realistic to spend money in the project’s current state. “We can’t expect people to spend thousands of dollars on lawyer fees and studies. They spend a lot of money and then they come back and say no. So, I think we can but we have to have conditions.”

When asked for his thoughts by the mayor, Councillor Bil Smith replied, “I don’t know. I need more information,” to which Coun. MacMillan echoed his opinion, adding “Yeah, same.”

Coun. Smith then asked at what point they could back out of a tentative agreement or how they might decide to do so. Mr. Fernandez told him the group typically gets tentative approval from the city council before it starts looking to meet the conditions set out by police, fire and paramedic services.

“The (craft fair) board has requested that we do an environmental study to gauge the impact of clearing those two lots on their property. That’s a requirement with the board,” Mr. Fernandez said. “The council’s part is to determine what the council would need to feel comfortable to move forward.”

Mayor Mayville followed up, asking Ms. Levy if the board would feel comfortable if an environmental study turned out fine. She said it’s not that simple, explaining the land is owned by the KCCF and any requests must be presented to all members and the board of directors.

“Without knowing the environmental impacts, we can’t just say, ‘yeah, go ahead and change our land,’” she said.

Mr. Fernandez said they would go another direction if the environmental study didn’t turn out in their favour, adding his company takes social responsibility in the way it conducts business.

Coun. Pecoskie then asked how many people they were expecting to host, the answer to which sparked immediate concern in the council chambers.

The proposed event in question, named the Kn?where Festival, has already sold about 600 tickets, according to Mr. Fernandez, but looks to sell up to 5,000.

Coun. Pecoskie followed up, asking where all the vehicles carrying those people are going to go.

“Last time they had one there, you couldn’t get through with a fire truck, couldn’t get through with a police car. They were all over the road, you couldn’t even move up that road,” he asserted. “Where are you going to put 5,000 people?”

Mr. Fernandez explained they were looking to offer car camping, where visitors have a designated space to stay by their vehicle overnight. In addition to hiring a security team of 24 to manage traffic, he promised to expand the site’s two entrances and install new gates.

He added all attendees will have to pay for one camping spot per car and each can have up to four people. “We’ve done this before, and what we see is that the average of four people to a car show up. So, 5,000 people is 1,000 cars realistically.”

Coun. Pecoskie gave the delegate a hypothetical question, asking what happens if they need to get fire trucks past that many vehicles. Mr. Fernandez said the festival has fire bans throughout, no pyrotechnics whatsoever and 24-hour rolling security to enforce the rules. Coun. Pecoskie reminded him the fair grounds are rural and buried in nature.

“You have to remember, we’re not in Downtown Toronto here,” he said.

Mr. Fernandez assured him they would work with the local fire department and ensure compliance with their standards.

Coun. Pecoskie gave a few follow-up questions, such as, “Why did you choose this spot for this festival? What was the reason behind that? Is this your first choice, or second, third, or what?”

Mr. Fernandez told him they had originally looked to host their event at BLR Festival Grounds, where the Palmer Rapids Twin Music Festival is held annually.

“We had done everything we needed to do. We did compliance with the fire chief, he okayed everything. He actually helped us design our first site plan and you know, everything was going swimmingly. Council, for the most part, was on our side and onboard with everything,” he explained. “However, there was a little bit of resistance with the people of that town.

“They weren’t willing to, let’s say, accept our sense of community and everything, no matter how much infrastructure and planning we provided.”

He went on to explain residents were unhappy with their idea of bringing in 5 km of fencing to close off the perimeter, adding they looked to do the same here. He said the land-owner was peer pressured by his neighbours and decided to back out at the last second.

Coun. Pecoskie asked where the thousands of people would be coming from. Mr. Fernandez said Toronto and Ottawa, prompting another question from the councillor.

“So why is the festival not closer to Toronto?”

Mr. Fernandez backed up the rationale, arguing the experience they looked to offer can’t be had in the city. He said they’re looking to provide an escape from the motor traffic and noise pollution of urban living. He added his company uses a sound system worth upwards of $6-million to steer and mitigate the volume.

Ms. Levy said the annual KCCF attracts anywhere between 500 to 700 people, but it has seen as many as 2,000 in years past.

Coun. Browne reminded the delegates that as private property, council has no control over governing what’s done with the land, and the fair board has the ultimate say. He continued to ask whether the company had done an overnight camping festival in Ontario before and if people would be bussed in.

“I received a few emails saying people will be bussed in and won’t be able to leave the grounds.”

Mr. Fernandez said their events have a no in-and-out policy, meaning people aren’t allowed to leave the fenced-in area.

“We’re able to control everything,” he said. “As for buses coming in, we have not yet launched a shuttle service, but we were planning to from Toronto Airport and Ottawa Airport to the festival grounds.”

The delegate pre-empted follow-up questions about basic needs like keeping visitors clean and well-fed. He explained they will have food vendors, water tankers and temporary shower facilities as well as 125 porta-potties and clean-up crews.

Councillor Harold Lavigne asked how local municipal services like the hospital and police would handle 5,000 people, to which Mr. Fernandez assured him their company would foot the bill for any calls. He added they would be hiring off-duty officers to help manage security and contracting First Response Ontario, a private paramedic service.

Coun. Smith got down to brass tacks, asking, “What’s in it for us? You’re bringing 5,000 people in town and putting them in a cage and not letting them off the site. So, is there any economic benefit?”

Mr. Fernandez promised a commitment of $5 per ticket sold with no lower limit. Mayor Mayville then asked if the company had a policy that whoever goes in must leave, adding he has heard of people ending up in encampments after their concerts.

“I think that would be a very bad thing for our community. People have reached out and told me,” he explained.

Mr. Fernandez replied in pure disbelief, saying, “At my festivals? My company? That’s not possible. Because like I said, we’ve never had a camping music festival in Ontario before. We run most of our things at existing venues in Toronto, even outdoor events. That information is false.”

He guaranteed Mayor Mayville they would have everybody put in their cars and sent home by the end of the weekend.

After about 45 minutes of back-and-forth and splitting hairs, the delegation wrapped up with the mayor closing off the discussion.

“You’ve given us a lot of information. Your brochure is very detailed and there’s a lot to think about,” he said. “We need time to think about it. I don’t think anyone around this table would want to jump right at it.”

He suggested the matter be brought up at council’s next meeting two weeks later to give all involved parties the time for some due diligence. Mayor Mayville thanked Mr. Fernandez for his presentation, and the large audience began packing up and filing out of the chambers.

Delegates Will Not Return

While council gave everyone involved until its May 20th meeting to ruminate the decision, it later told the Leader the delegates from DNR Productions had backed out of the proposed deal.