THUNDER BAY – Live at the Waterfront and the Thunder Bay Blues Festival will have a decidedly new look this summer.
Long held under the iconic yellow and white-striped tent on a stage built atop a large concrete slab, this year’s shows will instead be performed on the city’s new $1.6-million mobile SL-320 stage, a temporary stop-gap put in place until Phase 2 of the waterfront development is ready to go.
Ash Young, the city’s cultural development and events supervisor, said it was just time to make a change.
“The white and yellow tent structure that we had probably surpassed its lifespan about 10 years ago. It was really no longer usable,” Young said.
“It was becoming difficult to get it up to the engineering code each year.”
The mobile stage, which comes complete with state-of-the-art lighting and sound, will debut on Friday night at Live on the Waterfront, featuring Nova Scotia rapper Classified, CTV’s The Launch winner Logan Staats, aerialist Sachiko Brayshaw with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra’s string quartet and Elijah Will.
It will also be front and centre during Canada Day celebrations on Sunday, and house the nearly sold-out Thunder Bay Blues Festival the following weekend, featuring the likes of Sheryl Crow, Arkells, Sarah MacLachlin, Pat Benatar and Melissa Etheridge.
Young said converting the stage from tractor trailer to fully operational is not all that difficult.
“We have a lot of trained operators here now and we’re excited to show it off. For a regular 320 build, you could probably do it in about two hours, and that’s minus the rigging. In about three hours you can be set up once you start getting really good at it.”
The concert-going experience should be markedly improved, Young said.
“It’s really a top-end stage sound that people are going to experience when they come here. Everything’s going to be improved. It’s definitely going to create a destination on Wednesday nights all summer long,” he said.
Much of the money needed to cover the cost of the stage was secured through senior levels of government funding.
The ultimate plan – which has yet to receive approval and funding – is to build a permanent stage at the opposite end of Marina Park, near the current playground structure. It’s expected to be at least four to five years before that process begins rolling out.
