Blues Fest organizer explains late nights

THUNDER BAY -- Organizers at this weekend’s Thunder Bay Blues Festival say weather, airline complications and equipment issues are the main reasons why the first two nights have gone well past the scheduled 11 p.m. finish.

It’s beyond their control, said festival president Bob Halvorsen on Sunday in a statement released via Facebook.

“First and foremost, it was not our intention nor our plan for the festival to extend beyond the scheduled 11:00pm closing, “ Halvorsen said.
“Weather (rain) at the start of the festival on Friday, and then further complications with the headlining act’s (Tom Cochrane) guitar pushed us back an hour.  Consequently we ran past midnight before he was done.”

Halvorsen said it would be unfair to the record-breaking crowds to cut Cochrane’s act short on Friday night or Colin James’ short on Saturday.

“Considering the investment in the headlining acts, the fact that we had 7500 plus people in front of us waiting for us to deliver music from all of our scheduled performers, and the negative effect this would have had on the 2016 festival, not to mention future festivals;  these all  formed the basis for the decision to continue with the schedule as designed,” Halvorsen said.

Organizers tied to make the best of a bad situation, he added.

“Our tech crew worked well into the night preparing for today in the hopes that we will meet our 11:00pm closing time.   We thank all of our patrons for their patience and understanding, and thank them for making this the most successful Bluesfest in its 15 year history.” 
 
Sunday’s first act, The Roosters, took the stage about 40 minutes after their scheduled start time.