Proposed concert event The Commons at Butlers Barracks

Proposed concert event The Commons at Butler’s Barracks Fort George National Historic Site Niagara-on-the-Lake Proposal by Live Nation Canada

INTRODUCTION My name is Jason Grant and I am a promoter with Live Nation Canada, a division of Live Nation Entertainment, the global leader in concert promotion. I’ve come here today to brief the council regarding a proposed concert event at the Commons at Butler’s Barracks and answer your questions. I hope to leave here knowing that we have your support to produce a world-class concert right here in Niagara-on-the-Lake. Competitive concerns preclude me from discussing certain particulars, i. e. the names of performers and the event date, but this presentation should give you a good idea of who we are and how we will work with the community to achieve that end goal. I should note here that the event is still in its planning stages. We are still doing our due diligence with respect to resolving the key concerns for promoters, communities, and ticketholders at events of this kind – parking, traffic flow, security and quality of experience. This presentation assumes that we will be able to resolve all concerns in order to greenlight the event over the coming weeks.

WHO WE ARE • Live Nation Canada produces over 1, 000 events a year from St. John’s to Victoria, with offices in Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver housing the most experienced and highly-regarded event promoters, marketers and producers in the country. We own and operate the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre in Toronto and the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. We produce several annual festivals across the country, including the Squamish Valley Music Festival, Digital Dreams, Veld, and Field Trip at Fort York in downtown Toronto. We work daily with stakeholders in cities from 15, 000 to 5 million to produce concerts at venues inside their community. • I have been in the music business for over 30 years, and have been promoting concerts with this company for close to 20, including national arena tours for Grammy and Juno Award-winning artists, large-scale outdoor concerts and multi-day festivals. Some of you may be aware of or even have attended the last festival I promoted in Ontario, the Gentlemen of The Road Stopover in Simcoe in August 2013. • Our event producer and operations manager Roy Yen has produced concerts and other large scale public events around the world, including the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics. His 20 years of experience as a logistics and production expert will help us resolve problems or concerns related to past concerts at the Commons, and create a new model for future events.

OUR RESPONSIBILITIES Our team is keenly aware of the fact that concerts at the Commons take place in the middle of a community, and will impact local businesses and residents in a number of different ways. Our goal, and our commitment to the community of Niagaraon-the-Lake, is to produce an event that makes its citizens proud to have hosted it, benefits the local economy, and showcases the town and the region to visitors. We will work closely with elected officials, civic authorities and public safety officers to deliver a safe, enjoyable event that sets a new standard for concerts in the Niagara region.

THE CONCERT SITE The concert would take place on the Commons at Butler’s Barracks, with the stage and PA system pointing towards the lake, away from residential areas. Most of the park would remain open to the public during the event set-up and tear-down days, with the exception of fenced areas designated as off-limits. Those areas would be clearly marked and secured by a private security company 24 hours a day during this period. All concert-related activities on the park grounds would take place according to Parks Canada guidelines, which are designed to ensure the park is returned to its original state once our period of occupancy is over.

EVENT DETAILS Unlike previous concerts at the Commons, our event would take place on a weeknight. The concert would end no later than 11 pm, per the local noise bylaw. We are working with independent consultants, Parks Canada and the town to develop a fresh traffic plan and increase the number of available parking spaces in order to accommodate a larger number of attendees than the previous events, which were capped at 20, 000. The final capacity will be a function of the traffic analysis and parking plan. Timing for parking lots and event gates opening, and performances beginning, will be set once we have the event capacity confirmed.

BENEFITS TO NIAGARA-ONTHE-LAKE AND THE REGION v A SHOWCASE FOR THE COMMUNITY, AND BY THE COMMUNITY: This event would give local and area residents an opportunity to see a world-class concert event in their own backyard. Concert attendees from outside the area could see first-hand why Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Niagara region are considered world-class tourist destinations. v A MIDWEEK’S NIGHT DREAM: We would expect very high occupancy rates for all local and regional accommodation providers, mirroring or exceeding the usual numbers on weekends through the summer. v WE LOVE LOCAL: We can offer opportunities for local artisanal food & beverage producers to be included in the offerings on the concert site. v WE’RE HERE TO HELP: Through our experience producing events of this nature, and our knowledge of the type of audience attending, we can help the local business community find the best ways to meet the needs of these concertgoers.

PLAYING BY THE RULES Live Nation works with local, regional and provincial authorities all over the world to produce safe, well-managed events that satisfy all regulatory bodies. We are the only national concert promoter that employs a full-time Health and Safety Co-ordinator. As per our standard operating procedures, we would be applying for any and all permits required by municipal, provincial or federal law, meeting or exceeding safety standards in all areas of event production, and developing a comprehensive security and crisis management plan in conjunction with local public safety officials.

SECURITY Our security plans for events of this nature involve an assessment of all potential risks, projected attendance and audience demographic, and a common-sense approach to audience behaviour. Live Nation’s head of security works with local authorities and the AGCO to create an individual plan for each event that satisfies regulatory concerns and provides the safest, most enjoyable experience for the fans and the performers. In the case of any emergency situation, the Live Nation crisis management plan, customized for the event and approved by local public safety officials, is used to address, contain or remedy negative outcomes. With this concert site lying in close proximity to residential areas, the overall event security plan will also take into account the need for the neighbouring community to feel secure and their private property respected. Consultation with local resident groups and public safety officials will take place to arrive at solutions.

PARKING A number of areas on the Parks Canada grounds would be designated as official event parking lots. Unlike past events, in order to minimize line-ups and improve traffic flow in the community parking in these “on-site” lots would be provided at no extra charge to ticket-holders for this concert. The on-site parking lots would be well-lit and manned by experienced teams to ensure a safe, orderly parking process, with private security guards and local police deployed in the lots to monitor activity and provide a secure environment. We would also be working with local authorities to designate certain areas outside the park as no-parking zones for concert attendees, and publicize car-sharing, carpooling and public transit options to ticketholders in order to cut down on the total number of vehicles that come into the community.

TRAFFIC We have been in your community researching the road systems and traffic patterns, and a preliminary traffic plan that takes into account both concert attendees and local residents is being developed in conjunction with local traffic management professionals. The final plan may differ somewhat from what was executed at past concert events at the park, as it must be customized to reflect the % of ticketholders arriving from the GTA, upstate New York, and other parts of Ontario. Once the plan is in place, we use a combination of direct messaging to ticketholders and local residents, media advisories, road signage and traffic police to ensure the smoothest flow of event-related traffic into and out of the area.