THUNDER BAY – Organizers behind the Pavilion Concert Series held at Waverley Park held out hope for months that they could offer at least some outdoor concerts this summer, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They conceded defeat earlier this week, cancelling this year’s series but vowing to return in 2021.
This summer would have marked the third year of the series, after citizen group Coalition for Waverley Park organized for a new electrified pavilion in the park, built in 2018. Coalition president Keith Nymark said the shows regularly drew 200 to 300 people.
While organizers felt the size of the park would have allowed spectators to maintain appropriate physical distance, its open design would have made it impossible to enforce provincial limits on the size of public gatherings, Nymark explained.
Even after Thunder Bay moved into Stage 3 of the province’s phased reopening plan on Friday, gatherings are capped at 100 people in outdoor settings.
The concert series, put on in partnership with the Thunder Bay Musicians’ Association, ran every Monday evening from mid-July to mid-August last year.
The 2020 lineup had already been determined, featuring an eclectic blend of all-local musicians.
The cancellation is dispiriting, said Nymark, but organizers promise the series will return in 2021 – and hope to make it a summer fixture in the park for many years to come.
