Pemberton Festival cancels 2009 event season

The second Pemberton Festival in British Columbia, produced by Live Nation, is taking a pass on 2009 after getting the green light too late from a provincial land commission to move forward and stage the multiple-day music and camping event.

“We will not produce the Pemberton Festival this summer due to the fact that the necessary permits were approved too late in the year for us to effectively book talent,” a Live Nation spokesperson told TicketNews. “We are moving forward and focusing on 2010.”

Live Nation Canada president Shane Bourbonnais, who spearheaded last year’s inaugural event, told Vancouver’s Province, “We had had some internal conversations this week...and we think it is in the festival’s best interests to focus on 2010. It is unfortunate, but we really want to make sure that when we bring it back that we bring back a great event and we don’t repeat the problems that we had last year.”

Some of last year’s problems centered on security, traffic jams on the single-lane Sea-to-Sky Highway, long waits for shuttle buses that never came and garbage removal issues.

Last year’s festival reached its full 40,000 capacity each day, July 25-27, that featured 120 acts anchored by headliners Coldplay, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z and The Tragically Hip. The festival generated more than $10 million for the local economy.