Windsor Plywood French Creek: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products, including flooring, doors and moldings, and exterior project materials such as yellow cedar. Windsor Plywood French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized, one on one service to all of our customers, homeowners, do it yourselfers, renovators. Builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life, from start to finish. Let Windsor Plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build, or building project. Visit them online or call 752 3122.

Rockin Rhonda & The Uptown Blues Band: Here comes Peter. Here comes Dave. Oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So much laughs and insights everywhere. Peter and Dave, they're on the mics. Alright, join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.

Dave Graham: Welcome.Please arrange yourself into a comfortable position as we dip into what life is like in the middle of Vancouver Island. Yes, it's our once a week peak at some of the people and stories primarily originating from around these parts. Please welcome the co-host with the most. And we're not talking about irritating habits. He is a swell guy. It is Peter McCully, 

Peter McCully: A swell guy. Really? 

Dave Graham: You don't hear that term used anymore. So that's my latest project. I want to keep some old words and phrases alive. The only way to do so is to use them. Besides when I say you're a swell guy, I, I mean it. You really are a nice person. 

Peter McCully: So it says the guy who was once voted, nicest person in the building. Co-host of the Pulse Community Podcast, Dave Graham. 

Dave Graham: Gadzooks man. Nicest person in the building. Where did you get that? Bit of trivia. 

Peter McCully: Oh, where'd I get it? I snuck a peek at your notes this morning. 

Dave Graham: Oh, yay, verily. Well, actually, it really did happen, and you know what? That kind of thing just doesn't come up in normal conversations, so I thought I'd put it out there for the record. It wasn't that big a building, but enough about me.  

Peter McCully: Moving on, on this episode, upcoming recording artist Martin Rupprecht of Qualicum Beach, who goes by the name of Amarii, is here to chat and share a tune. He talks about what it takes for younger artists to get their music heard. 

Martin Rupprecht: I always say this, if you wanna make music, just do it. It’s honestly, it's that simple. Like put the ideas down, record it in your phone, wherever. Just get it out there. Start somewhere. Here's the big thing, don't let the small town kind of mentality bring you down. Don't let other people around you tell you you can't do it. The only reason why they're saying you can't do it is because in their mind they can't do it. So that automatically means you can't do it. But that's just not true. 

Dave Graham: We are also joined by Mike Hann, the festival director for the wildly popular events in Lake Cowichan that include the Nickelback concert and SunFest. 

Mike Hann: Ticket sales are an important part. We're running a business at the end of the day, and in order for us to survive and be able to continue to do the events and bring these incredible acts to Vancouver Island, the business has to be successful. Obviously, ticket sales are a huge part of that. But part of deriving your own success in the case of a show like Nickelback or SunFest, which is also equally as popular, it seems, is making sure that the guest experience is such that people want to come back and they enjoy it so much that they're thinking about coming next year while they're on site.

Dave Graham: Mike Hann and LakeTown being the site of some major events, sun Fest included. Stay tuned for a chance to win a general admission pass to Sun Fest, the biggest country music festival in the province, lake Town. Also home to JeepaPalooza event that raises money for cancer and promises to bust Jeeps. That brings to mind another great old word we could bring back. Jeepers. 

Peter McCully: Watch your language. Future guests include author of the Lane Winslow series, Iona Whishaw, who will be in the PQB area in the coming weeks. 

Dave Graham: Scuttlebutt. There's another great old word scuttlebutt around the old water cooler, says that we'll also be talking about the skateboard park that's being built in Qualicum Beach. Josh Reed is going to talk about the fundraising effort and construction. The official opening is expected in June.

Peter McCully:  Dave, we've had a few messages on the Speak to Us line, including this. 

Mac Community Garden: Hi there. It's Dan from the Mac Community Garden in Parksville. It's been a busy spring for us with planting and transplanting and a full schedule of workshops and events. We grow and glean and give away thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables every year. And right now we're raising money to support our food security initiatives with a raffle and a grand prize of a freezer full of beef from Victoria's Berryman Farms, or a $2,300 cash equivalent. The draw date is May 3rd at 1:00 PM and you can get your ticket at their website, www pqbfruit.org or come by the garden at 133 McMillan Street by the McMillan Art Center, 

Dave Graham: and we have another call to relay to you Dear Pulse, community member. 

KSS Premier Performance: Hello Dave and Peter. I wondered if I could let you know about an upcoming event called Premier Performance Wednesday, April 23rd at this Qualicum Beach Civic Center. I. Just what is the premier performance you may ask? Well, it is an evening of music drama and visual arts highlighting the talented students in the fine arts programs at Qualicum Secondary.

A little bit of background, over 30 years ago, a few parents of music students realized that our talented band, choir, and jazz students had one recognition and [00:06:00] praise at a number of competitions at the regional and national level. While this was very rewarding, a few other people than their parents and grandparents were aware of how good the groups were.

So the idea of Premier Performance was born in 1995, a concert for the general public in the Qualicum Beach Civic Center to allow a wider group of patrons to see the students perform. The first few years were just music, but after a couple of years, art, photography and drama were added to the evening.

Shortly after this, that core group of Qualcomm citizens became concerned that the funding cuts that were happening at the school district were seriously impacting the fine arts students. They came together and the idea of creating a society to help students attend workshops and events that the school budget could not fund was born.

The KSS Fine Arts Society was formed in 2001. And in 2006, the society was registered as a charity under the Income Tax Act. What can you expect if you attend entering the Qualicum Beach Civic Center? You will see art and photography in many forms, one, two, and three. D Arts is often included over the years.

Some wood, metal and textile arts have also been displayed on the stage. The concert bands and concert choir perform much of the music that they have prepared to play or sing at the Vancouver Island Music festivals. Short drama performance is included for a taste of what the drama students have been working on for regional competitions.

In total, between 80 and a hundred students will be represented at the event. The evening is presented by the KSS Fine Arts Society, helped by the sponsorship of several local businesses and individuals. Wednesday, April 23rd at this Qualicum Beach Civic Center is this year's event. The doors open at 6:30.

For your viewing of the art display, the performances start at seven. Tickets will be available at the door for $15, and all of the ticket sales and any donations go directly to funding student workshops. As the sponsors cover the cost of presenting the evening as funding cuts are back on the agenda for the school district.

It is as important as it was over 25 years ago to support the arts in the schools. If you ask anyone who has been at any of the past 27 Premier performances, they will tell you how impressed they are by the quality of the student's talent. Just the lovely evening's entertainment. Thank you so much. 

Peter McCully: I was in attendance of the event a few times when you were master of Ceremonies, and I know you were part of the event for many years.

Dave Graham: It was an honor to be associated with Premier performance and just to witness what those students were accomplishing in their artistic pursuits. Very inspiring. And you know me, Peter, I'm quite passionate about encouraging artistic expression. Premiere performance is top drawer, to use an old phrase. 

Peter McCully: Well, it seems every week we come across something interesting in regards to our, the United State of Canada segment. Have you heard the privateers in Oh, Canada. I ran across it on the interweb and it's quite good. 

Song

Dave Graham: Standing tall and being proud, but not obnoxiously. So because that's not how we Canadians roll. I wasn't sure if I should be sitting or standing when that played. So I went online to check out protocol on what to do in the National Anthem place. I think in a private setting, we're okay to remain seated. Alright, keep those cards, letters and telegrams coming. More old words. We also accept correspondence on those highfalutin newfangled computing devices that includes email, text, and voice messages. Follow the contact links from the pulse community.ca. 

SOSD69: For 57 years, SOS has helped ease social isolation and strengthen our community by connecting people of all ages to programs that support their well being. For many years, the SOS bus has helped facilitate reliable and safe access to programs. Unfortunately, the bus has reached the end of the road. The SOS Connecting Community Campaign aims to raise $200,000 to help purchase a new, safe, reliable bus that is essential in providing transportation to a variety of SOS programs.

Seniors are taken on grocery shopping trips. Children are picked up from school so they may enjoy enriching supportive programs, and families and youth are taken on exciting outings. Social connections can decrease anxiety and depression, enhance self-esteem, and improve overall health. For more information or to donate to the OS Connecting Community Campaign, visit SOSD69.com.

Peter McCully: Time to bring out our first guest, Marilyn, who is in the green room, 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Hip hop and pop artist. Martin Rupprecht of Qualicum Beach, who goes by the stage name of Amarii. Signed with Kolossal records in 2024 and released his first single early this year. He joins us from the Green Room. 

Peter McCully: Thanks for joining us on the podcast today, Martin.

Martin Rupprecht: Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here first. 

Peter McCully: I think congratulations are in order in being signed to a label. Tell us how that all came about.

Martin Rupprecht: I signed to Al Record founded by Kayla Diamond about a year ago Now she's based in Montreal and Toronto, about half and half. How I got signed was the head of manager at the time, and he introduced me to Kayla Diamond.

She's a producer as well as label owner. He said, oh, I think that she would really like your song, bad guy. So he sent bad guy over to her from her word. She heard emotion and there was a voice there is what she said. She decided to reach out to me and said to my manager at the time, I want to sign this kit.

Originally it was only gonna be like a one single deal, one song. I had a meeting with her partners and her and I sent them more music, and then I told them a little bit about my story growing up in foster care, my struggles of being in that situation and getting through that. I think that's the moment they decided that they wanted to [00:15:00] sign me on a full on record deal, full ep, which is a mini album and development deal.

So that's kind of how that came about and yeah, it's cool. 

Peter McCully: So far, what's been the most surprising part of working with a label so far? 

Martin Rupprecht: I think when I first got signed, I had a bit of the mentality that, you know, I have a backing financially now for just gonna do all these things for me, do everything for me, kind of thing. And I learned very quickly. That's not the case. I. Especially in my deal, I have a development deal, which is like all the money is going into developing me and helping me grow as an artist. So yeah, I learned very quickly that I had to do a lot of work. You have to work even harder once you get signed. The one thing I've learned, I think that was something definitely right off the bat. That was interesting. 

Peter McCully: Martin, your backstory is you are a local from Vancouver Island. 

Martin Rupprecht: I am from Vancouver Island. Yeah, I grew up in Qualicum Beach area. I lived in Parksville when I was very young. I lived in Errington at one point. I went to high school in Qualicum, graduated at Qualicum secondary school. Yeah, the island has been my home for my entire life. 

Peter McCully: As I read your backstory, uh, you started making music at 17 during Covid, when we all had time to focus on other things. 

Martin Rupprecht: I kind of had actually started playing with the idea of making music before Covid hit. And I was kind of starting to do it. I remember telling certain people I wanted to do it, and like my family, they just like, oh, it's not a good idea. You should just go to school as like a former foster kid. When you are a foster kid, you actually get a certain amount of funding for university paid for, not like living on campus, but they pay for a lot of your schooling. And so my family was like, why don't you take that? And I said, I want it to do music. And so I decided to do music. Then Covid hit and everyone's bored, right? So all I really did was sit in my room in my family's basement and just make songs. I would find instrumentals and beats on YouTube and load them up onto my Pro tools, sing into them. I used to kind of do more hip hop stuff. I used to like rap into them and just like practice over and over and over again and send 'em to an engineer I was working with who I met on the. I did it like hundreds of times, or I have like hundreds of songs and are just sitting in like an old email somewhere. That's kind of how I really got into it, really became passionate about making music. 

Peter McCully: And who were some of those early musical influences that inspired you to begin creating your own sound? 

Martin Rupprecht: I think early musical influences could go all the way back to like Michael Jackson. I'm a huge MJ fan. Think I remember watching his videos over and over and over again on YouTube when I was really young and Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber too, and the Rock World, like Green Day. I think those were my very early influences. For sure. 

Peter McCully: You're a singer songwriter. Can you walk through your creative process? Do you typically start with lyrics or melody or something else entirely?

Martin Rupprecht: Honestly, my process is different each time. I think when I'm writing a song or going into a session, I like to have an idea in my head of what I want to sing about or talk about, and I start talking about it with whoever I'm working with. Or if it's just by myself, I'll just start writing it down in notes or on a piece of paper and voice memo and melody onto my phone. I'm one of those writers that could just have a whole bunch of melodies. Songs change a million times when I'm making them. Songs can start off what we think is gonna be going this direction, all of a sudden take the left turn and goes this direction. So it's really the beauty about collaborating too, is like everyone has their own ideas. I never wanna go into a session with any set idea that I want to do because then like production wise, like, because I could just ruin the whole vibe. But yeah, that's my process. I'm pretty open and free about that.

Peter McCully: You mentioned that music has been therapeutic for you. Could you share more about your specific emotions or experiences that you've been processing through songwriting and singing? 

Martin Rupprecht: It's been therapy for me my whole life. I think I had a therapist when I was really young, but it didn't really work out too well for me. I definitely used it, like it started off just listening to music and then when I started making it, I was able to write [00:19:00] and sing about things that I couldn't say or I couldn't talk about. It felt like a superpower to me, and so that's what I would do. I would put my emotions into the song and I was my way talking about it, especially when I met Kayla Diamond. She really helped me talk about my mom and my issues I've had with her and growing up in foster care, which was super hard for me to talk about my entire life and all the stuff I've been through. That's how it's been therapy for me. 

Peter McCully: Tell us about your stage name, Martin, which is Amarii. 

Martin Rupprecht: My stage name Amarii with two I’s. It means eternal. I love it because I want the name Amarii to be lasting forever. Internal means forever. I want it to be a lasting name and I want people to remember it for a long time. 

Peter McCully: Recently, you had the chance to attend the Juno Fest weekend, which was held in Vancouver. That must have been pretty exciting for you.

Martin Rupprecht: It was super exciting. Yeah, my whole team, they're all pretty much from Toronto. They came out, my producer Kayla, she was nominated for rap album the year and she was produced on one of the songs. So we celebrated that. I went to a bunch of industry events, so I went to the Music BC event. I went to the Sony Music after party, after the Junos, which is really cool because I was in the room with a bunch of people that didn't think I would meet this quickly either. So, which is networking and you know, making Connects and. Building relationships. But yeah, it was a whole lot of fun. I brought all my friends out. We had a great time. We went to the shows. It was super successful. 

Peter McCully: Are there any artists that you dream about collaborating with someday? 

Martin Rupprecht: Oh, there's many artists I dream about collaborating with, for sure. I really like the big Canadian ones, like Justin Beaver, the Weekend, Shawn Mendes, and then there's Post Malone, there's Kid Laroi. I think those are definitely some of the main ones, 

Martin Rupprecht: For sure. 

Peter McCully: Well, my Ma always says, set your sights high.  

Martin Rupprecht: That's what I like to do.Yeah. 

Peter McCully: What's been your most memorable performance experience so far?

Martin Rupprecht: I think definitely I had a show, it was a showcase actually, in Toronto at a solo [00:21:00] house downtown. My team set me up with three other artists in front of a bunch of industry people and just people that came out. I had some fans come out from Oshawa. I didn't know I had fans in Oshawa. I had a few other fans come up that were super excited to see me, which is cool, but I actually have fans out there.

It was kind of an acoustic set. It was a very chill environment, but I feel like I brought the energy and I brought like a different kind of experience than that kind of showcase it's used to. People were chanting back my solos and play me again and it was such an amazing feeling. So yeah, I think that's definitely my show highlight so far. 

Peter McCully: Your breakthrough song, Bad Guy seems very personal to you. What's the story behind the track and why do you think it resonated with listeners and industry professionals? 

Martin Rupprecht: So story behind Bad Guy is honestly like feeling like the bad guy in situations. Whether it's been with romantic relationships with women or just friendships. 'cause there's been a few situations where it just mutually went bad between me and the other person I had seemed to have been painted the bad guy, so I decided to write about it. The song just basically means, I guess I'm the bad guy in this situation. Like, it's almost ironic, you know, I think it resonated with listeners because it's just emotional and heartfelt and people can relate to that and definitely resonated with some industry people like Kayla, who's the one who heard, I actually had a lot of people turn that song down in the industry before Kayla heard the, and she said, I hear her voice hear, I hear a motion. And that's when she decided to sign me. Tell me about the track. Play me again. It is actually my first single I released with the label and it's one of my favorite songs off. It's just such an anthem. I think this song hasn't been serviced to radio or anything yet, but mark my words right here on the podcast, that song is gonna be all over worldwide. I just love that song. I. It is this universal song that everyone can sing along to and feel good when you listen to it.

Play Me Again

Peter McCully: Martin, for young artists from small towns like Parksville, Qualicum Beach, who are just starting out, what advice would you give them about pursuing their musical dreams and maybe how do they go about that? 

Martin Rupprecht: It's a very good question. I always say this, if you wanna make music, just do it. It’s honestly, it's that simple. Like put the ideas down, record it in your phone, wherever. Just get it out there. Start somewhere. Here's the big thing, don't let the small town kind of mentality bring you down. Don't let other people around you tell you you can't do it. The only reason why they're saying you can't do it, it's because in their mind they can't do it. So that automatically means you can't do it. But that's just not true. I had to deal with a lot of that coming up. Like I had, I select three people maximum that said, I believe in you. You can do this outta the entire high school town, whatever. Don't listen to anyone and keep your head down and walk out the noise and keep creative and keep pushing.

Peter McCully: You may be wise beyond your years, Martin, looking five years down the road, what are your biggest hopes for your career in artistic development? Where do you hope to be in five years? 

Martin Rupprecht: I think career-wise, I wanna be living off my music financially. I want to have a headline tour across North America. I wanna have a Juno Award in my pocket. I wanna be able to support my family, support my friends, you know, be a reader artistically. I wanna be just as passionate as I am right now about it. I hope that I'm in a play for, I'm still loving it as much as I am now. Because you see a lot of stories where artists just kind of leaves that love because this business can be tough.

I just wanna make sure that I'm healthy and mentally healthy and in the right space to do that, and just keep moving forward and keep growing. You learned for your whole life and I'm just excited to keep learning. 

Peter McCully: Martin, thanks for your time today. We've really appreciated it. And, uh, best of luck as you head down this musical journey, and perhaps you could leave us with how folks can find you on social media.

Martin Rupprecht: Thank you so much for having me. It was good to talk to you. And you can find me on all music platforms, all social media platforms. Social media will be Amarii. That's A-M-A-R-I-I ye. My Instagram, YouTube, TikTok streaming platforms is just Tam Mario, two Eyes, Spotify, apple Music, YouTube, music, whatever streaming platform you use. I'll be on there. Go listen to my new songs and I hope you like them. 

Dave Graham: There's Qualicum Beach resident making his way in the wild and wacky world of music. Amarii is his stage name, and to borrow another old phrase, he's just the bee's knees. That means he's good. We like him. Okay. I admit I might not exactly be in his target demographic. By that I mean I might be just a smidgen older than his average fan, but it is certainly wonderful to see a local following their passion and getting great response so early into his career. 

Ian Lindsay & Associates: Ian Lindsay of Lindsay and Associates has played an active role in the local community since 1979. He has been with Re/Max Vancouver Island's most advanced real estate business network since 1996, marketing and selling residential, rural strata recreational investment, and project development real estate. Ian has received several awards recognizing his exceptional community commitment locally. As well as awards for outstanding performance and achievement from both Re/Max International and the Vancouver Island Real Estate Board. You'll find true real estate professionals@ianlindsay.ca. 

SOSD69: The Pulse Community Podcast is brought to you in part by Windsor Plywood in French Creek, specializing in hard to source interior and exterior home finishing products. Including flooring, doors and moldings and exterior project materials such as yellow, cedar, Windsor, plywood, French Creek carries high quality, responsibly sourced products and are committed to providing outstanding value and personalized one-on-one service to all of our customers. Homeowners do-it-yourselfers, renovators, builders, designers, craftsmen, and contractors. Regardless of the type or size of your project, Windsor can help you bring your vision to life from start to finish. Let Windsor plywood and French Creek help you with your renovation, new build or building project. Visit them online or call 752-3122. 

Peter McCully: Thanks to Windsor Plywood and Ian Lindsay for their support of the Pulse Community Podcast. We have room for more. Email me, peter@thepulsecommunity.ca. 

Dave Graham: Jumpin Jehosaphat in the interest of promoting old fashioned words. In this episode, I say EGad. We are this far into the podcast and we haven't mentioned our kids stories, including the delightful series about a boy named Peter and his dog, Gracie. In the latest episode, there's a visit to the vet. Peter discovers something new about himself. 

Peter McCully: We also feature a series called The Mellow Submarine, featuring Captain Dave and an assortment of Marine life as the crew. The newest episode is called The Secret of the Sunset Sandcastles. You'll find all the episodes of SKU Kids stories on the pulse community.ca, s kids.com, apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon, and YouTube.

Dave Graham: And we need look no further for our next guest. Marilyn, if you please. 

Marilyn: In the Green room is Mike Hann, Festival Director for the Lake Town Amphitheater in Lake Cowichan. They are hosting events that include Sun Fest, the Lake Town Amphitheater with Headliners Nickelback, and the Cowichan Bluegrass Festival. 

Peter McCully: Thanks for making time for us on the podcast today, Mike.

Mike Hann: Thanks for having me on Peter. Nice to connect. 

Peter McCully: You've been involved in music festivals on Vancouver Island for a long time. Going back to the song and surf and tall tree music festivals, Can you share the story behind what inspired the creation of Lake Town Events and Sun Fest concerts and how those festivals evolved?

Mike Hann: Yeah, absolutely. I was gonna give you credit for doing your research, attributing song and Surf and Tall Trees to this conversation. Basically the origin story of Lake Town itself was back to Greg Adams, who's the owner. His Dave is a professional hockey player actually, and he spent a lot of time in the United States and he had his first son in Washington DC and shortly after Greg retired, he had, his family had three kids at that point down in Florida.

And they attended, I believe it was a wine and rib festival, and there was a band called Three Dog Night Playing. Greg said to his wife, why do we not have something like this on Vancouver Island? And Greg's a real hard worker and a guy who's not afraid to try things. But when he came back to Vancouver Island, he called up his friend Brian Burke, which made hockey will know.

We basically asked Brian, who do we know in the entertainment industry, and Brian connected him with Brian, Adam, manager, and they had a good conversation. They were on the phone for about an hour and ended up booking 54 40 for a one day show that happened in the couch and valley at Providence Farm, and it went really well.

That was in the early two thousands, about 25 years ago. Actually. That was the first SunFest that from there kind of built. They had been like blue rodeo come through Colin James, wide mouth Mason. In and around 2011, 2012, Greg had to move site and he moved to couch and exhibition grounds. And it was that point that Johnny Reid became available and.

Therefore sun theft went into more of the country realm, and that was received incredibly well in subsequent years. Some big act came through Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban and crowds grew and eventually started outgrew couch and exhibition grounds as well. And it was around 2014 that Greg and I met.

So this is where my story sort of joins with Greg. I actually played at Musician as well and played at. Greg heard that I was running a festival called Tall Tress Music Festival and, and also Song and Surf Festival. And he asked, he was kind of looking for a guy to help manage these events and, and that's where things started off for us.

And during that time he was looking for a property because he was outgrowing couch and exhibition ground, looking for a property to move sun to an he found property in 2015. In Lake Couch and, and in 2016, in January, ground was broken on building Lake Town Ranch and what is now Lake Town Amphitheater, where the stage is and the amazing concert bowl, and in that eight months, so ground broken.

In January, eight months later, carry Underwood took the stage for the first country, SunFest outside of couch and exhibition grounds, and just a huge accomplishment. So that's kind of how it all happened. And years have gone by at Lake Town Ranch and we've kept adding to it, obviously, but now doing lots of other events there as well.

Peter McCully: Mike, what's the process for curating the festival lineups each year? How do you balance bringing in established headliners like Carrie Underwood versus some of the emerging artists? 

Mike Hann: So, yeah, that's a really good question. And every genre honestly Peter is a little bit different with country itself. You're dealing with that booking tours, like sometimes more than a year in advance. Sometimes that's a 16 month sort of thing. We have somebody on our team, her name's Nicole Moore, she's in Nashville, and she really got her finger on the pulse as far as what's up and coming and what headliners are gonna be touring, et cetera, et cetera.

So we will get word on. You know, for instance, right now we're starting to talk about 2026 for Sun Fest looking at liners, and we'll always start with the headliner. You know, we going back and forth with the agents making offers being what other country events in the area these artists can route through to give them more meat on the bone, so to speak.

When they're touring, we'll then come to an agreement. Our goal is usually to try to announce our next year's headliner at SunFest for this year, 2025. The goal would be to announce our headliner. For 2026 at that event. From there, we work ourselves [00:36:00] down the line at basically we'll book our sort of second and third headliners, sometimes that far out. Sometimes it'll be into the fall, and then working our way down to emerging artists. And then regional artists are usually the ones that are booked last, and you know, you're trying to curate day by day. Rock is similar, but sometimes when you're doing these multi genre events, you might be booking things at the last minute. When I say last minute, I mean within the final certified six months, but we'd like to do it as far in advance possible. 

Peter McCully: Well, the lineup for the Lake Town event is Sam Roberts band, the Glorious Suns and Nickelback. So how far in advance did you have to book Nickelback? 

Mike Hann: That's an interesting story, that one, because we had actually been talking to Nickelback about trying to get them out to Lake Cowichan amphitheater, as we now call it.

We had been talking to them in the fall and actually late summer as well, and, and things just weren't lining up with some tours that they had already planned their tour in the US this summer and also have some. Some days out east, so we've kind of written it off as not happening for this year, and it was just about a six weeks ago from the day that we're speaking, actually, they reached out and the band had expressed their agent that they wanted to maybe take on some other shows, and actually had specifically asked Ralph James, who's their agent.

We played Vancouver Island in a while, and since we'd already had the conversation, we were on their radar and they reached out and it all happened really quickly. We had actually been planning a separate event for late August, which included Sam Roberts and Gloria Sun. We were gonna be doing an all Canadian lineup, just a little bit smaller scale.

Then Nickelback came along, they said they could. Play August 9th, which is the week after Sun Fest. So we moved Gloria Suns and Sam Roberts for that day and it all came together really quickly. We announced the show three weeks after we confirmed them and we confirmed them about a week and a half after they first reached out.

And now here we are with the show on the spic of filling out. That's kind of the other side of the coin, right? Where things can also come together. Super last minute. 

Peter McCully: What have been some of your biggest challenges or most memorable moments in securing certain artists for your festivals? 

Mike Hann: One of the biggest challenges, especially being in a B market, and we'll just call it what it is, right?

We only have, let's try a million people living on the island. We're not on the radar of these big tours. So one of the big challenges just spanning over the years has been getting these aless acts to pay attention to Vancouver Island. Come up here and at the same time doing it at a cost to us that when we turn it around into a ticket price, keeping it attainable for the customer as well, or the guests.

So that's been a huge challenge also, when following a typical festival model, and I'll speak sort of outside country, 'cause country you we're working with other established country event. Such as Watershed and their sweet home in Oregon and formerly Rock and River in BC where we could buy with them. So there was more buying power.

But when we're talking about their former event, lake Town Shakedown, we were doing a one-off event. We would pick the date. We were then trying to convince these acts to come to us and there wasn't a lot else in the area. To make it enticing for them. So we'd be up against European festivals, all these American festivals, plus paying an American dollar to get a lot of these big acts.

So it was a challenge to find acts that would suit what we were doing to get them enticed enough to come out to join us, and then curating something that is gonna go over well with the smaller market. If you compare it to a market like Vancouver, you've got a couple million people. So the chances of having fans of certain artists is much higher than on Vancouver Island.

And as we've learned, it's hard to please everybody. That's for sure. So those would be my biggest challenges as far as curating it's concerned. 

Peter McCully: How do you measure the success of a festival beyond the ticket sales? To sell out. Nickelback is fantastic. It didn't take long, but there are other measurements I'm sure that you relate to have a successful festival.

Mike Hann: Absolutely. I mean, ticket sales are an important part. We're running a business at the end of the day, and in order for us to survive and be able to continue to do the events and bring these incredible acts to Vancouver Island, the business has to be successful. Obviously, ticket sales are a huge part of that, but part of surviving your own success in the case of a show like Nickelback or SunFest, which is also equally.

Popular, it seems, is making sure that the guest experience is such that people want to come back and they enjoy it so much that they're thinking about coming next year while they're on site. And so that's down to the little small details, right? Like where are the drinking water stations? What toilets are on site?

Are there enough toilets? What people's experience when they're arriving, are they dealing with big lineups? Or can they pull in and park and everything is laid out well for them as far as finding box office is concerned and being greeted with a smile. So success for us is multilayered. It's something that we think about all year long, and we take feedback from every event and we take it to heart and we look at it post event every year and we look at how we can do better the following year.

It's an interesting business in the sense that if one event, sun Fest, for instance, we year over year look to make improvement. We have 365 days of downtime, so if we get something wrong, we have a whole year to think about it and try and correct it, as opposed to being able to do it the following week.

Success for us. Just to circle back to the original question is really about making sure that it's a seamless experience, one that people walk away feeling really good from and not frustrated because they had to deal with things that you hear about from other festivals that maybe pop up in fields and that kind of thing. That's success for us. 

Peter McCully: Let's talk about that for a moment. Mike, do you have any fun numbers for us? How many people were at Sun Fest last year? How much did they eat? How many Johnny on the spots did you have? How many parking spots did you have? 

Mike Hann: We have over 70 PLU toilets on site. We've built our own Johnny on the spot. They're made of wood actually, so we call them naughty with a k naughty potty. I'm quite proud of that name. If I do say it on myself, we make sure that we've got enough coverage for people so they're not dealing with some of the nightmares that a lot of festivals just using Porta-Pottys. So numbers, we have anywhere between 10 and 15,000 people a day.

Nickelback will be looking at 15,000 on site. Sunday can fluctuate based on what the headliner is, but you're looking at somewhere in that range and on site. We have camping for about 10,000, but typically we'll see between seven and 8,000 people camping on site. You know, they're making their home there for the weekend.

So we need to make sure that they have all the amenities that they want and need. So we have showers both on our lower part of our property, which we call lower camping, which is what you can see from YouBou Road. And also in the upper camping, we have potable water for people, lots of food options. We have 10 different sort of food vendor options throughout the site for them.

Flush toilets, drinking water, way finding signage. Parking. We like to make as seamless as we can, so when people come in, we have a team of people that are right away greeting them, pointing them in the right direction, helping them park, and then directing them up to the box office, where we also hope to have a seamless experience for them as well.

Peter McCully: You mentioned that you have a year to think about the next event. You have 364 days to think about what you want to change or do differently. What's the most complex logistical challenge you've had to overcome while you are organizing these festivals? 

Mike Hann: Instantly when you asked that question. I think to what I was alluding to earlier, as far as like putting the pieces of the lineup together for full festivals, but operationally it's waste management, I would say, is one of the most logistically demanding and challenging things to deal with 'cause you have 250 acres that we're dealing with at Lake Town Ranch and people camping wrote a lot of it. You know, having a team that is going around collecting, recycling, sorting, recycling, collecting garbage, making sure the site's clean in general, cleaning out toilet, the ones that don't flush, making sure all that is dealt with while keeping those units clean.

We've been talking about toilets a lot, Peter, have you noticed that? 

Peter McCully: I've noticed that. Yeah. 

Mike Hann: It comes up a lot. It's something we're really proud of, but you know, that's not to discredit or downplay everything else that goes on from a year round operation of, as far as building on the site, getting things ready, getting all the tents up, making sure that all the signage is, uh, making sure that our operations and our safety plans are all in order.

Our ingress plan and traffic management to messaging. You know, messaging is something that's overlooked a lot as far as like a complex thing. The Nickelback Show, for instance, we know already that we're gonna have a lot of people coming to the site for the first time. So one of the biggest challenges, especially in this day and age of short attention done, is getting the pertinent information into people's hands and having them registered. So as they are arriving prepared, and it's the challenge that we face every year. 

Peter McCully: Some of these communities are fairly small. What economic impact does the festival have on those local communities where they're held? 

Mike Hann:  You have direct economic impact. We've had some studies done. The most recent was about four years ago, and for SunFest, the direct economic impact for that event was $18 million.

And then you have your residual as well, and by way of tourism and people returning to the area. So we don't have a exact figure. We say it's somewhere two, two to three times higher than than the 18 million. And that's just for one event. So it's huge when you think you're bringing all those people into the valley, they're going out to the stores, they're spending money on accommodation with restaurants, that sort of thing.

It's a huge impact per event. And obviously we have different types of events and different sizes of events happening throughout the year. But that study, which is pertaining to Sunset, we also like to give back to the community as well. We have a really, um, benevolent society, which through the years has given about $1.25 million in direct donation to various community organizations around the Cowichan Valley.

And then it goes beyond that. There's been about estimated $10 million of infused dollars into local businesses, sort of through direct and indirect investment and employment opportunities. Since the inception of Lake Town Ranch, we're trying to give back and also create events that bring people into the area and support local businesses both directly and indirectly.

Peter McCully: The lineup for Sun Fest this year includes Sawyer Brown, Brothers Osborne, Bailey Zimmerman, Chase Rice. I had the opportunity to see Sawyer Brown twice, and they put on a a pretty great show. They've got a great catalogue, 50 charted hits, and poor old Mark Miller. The lead singer has had his knee done about three times. He's so active on stage. They're a good group and that's just part of the lineup, obviously. But you've got some good things planned for Sun Fest this year. 

Mike Hann: We do. Yeah. And I'm glad you brought up Sawyer Brown 'cause that's, that's an act that I'm super excited to see again. I saw them once, we've had them at SunFest in the past, and like you say, they're blowing out knees.

They're so high and high energy, so we expect them to bring it this year as well. And they're playing before Brothers Osborne actually. They're getting a lot of attention from the Bank of Island crowd. They're a bit more of a crossover act, I would say. People are really excited. Our lineup right now, it's skewing a little younger, I would say, than we have in years past, and we've noticed that Sun Fest trending that way a little bit over the past couple years.

But Daily Zimmerman is somebody that. People should be paying attention to. He is on the up and up and it is going to be one of those, like Luke Bryan type level acts very soon, [00:48:00] if not by the time the summer rolls around. So super excited to have Bailey on there. Jordan Davis as well. He just toured Canada last year.

In 2024, he was selling out arenas. So another act that we're really excited to have and hope that all the country fans on Vancouver Island are also super excited about it. It's gonna be a great show and as always, the energy is gonna be really high. The acts we know love coming to Vancouver Island and playing at Lake Town Ranch to the, the fans that come out to Sunset estimate to the fans on Vancouver Island and, and is what Keeps these acts of the level that we're talking coming back to the island because now they go back to Nashville and they talk, you know, the are churches and the, the Keith Urban, they go and express whatever great time they had up on Vancouver Island and it keeps them coming back. So we encourage people to keep that going because the artists definitely notice.

Peter McCully: Well, Mike, before we go, I wanted to ask you how you see the festival landscape evolving in the next five years in general, but in Vancouver Island in particular. 

Mike Hann: I wish I had a crystal ball. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. It's challenging times for the festival industry. Obviously we've lost a few really prominent events over the past little while here, namely the Comox Valley Music Festival.

What I hope is that economic constraints that still are spilling over from covid start to loosen inflation, get kept in check a little bit. And maybe the Canadian dollar gets a little more friendly as far as exchange rates in the USD and that some of these festivals can come back and thrive because it, it has been challenging.

Just with the costs involved, we're putting on a festival. So I'm hopeful that we can start to see more festivals coming back and sticking around, um, because I think it's such an important part of our cultural fabric in Canada, but also on Bank Island, of course. I think there's gonna be an extension of some hard times, especially with everything going on south of the border right now.

But I'm hopeful that the love of music will win and people will start to come out and support Canadian music especially and support these events as they come and recognize, especially in the case of think of island music will going away. You know, maybe recognize that, oh my God, I had a really good thing while I was there, and when these events, whatever they are, come back, people get out and support them because.

It's super important, like I said, to our cultural fabric. Wish I had a crystal ball, but I'm optimistic that things will be good in five years. 

Peter McCully: Well, I'll call you in five years and we will chat about that again. 

Mike Hann: Sounds like a plan. 

Peter McCully: I'm not gonna wait five years. Actually, we'll chat again next year. Yeah, we'll see what the lineup is. Thanks for your time today, Mike. 

Martin Rupprecht: Thanks for having me on, Peter. Appreciate it. 

Dave Graham: Lake Town will host a lot of significant events over the coming months, including Sun Fest, the biggest country music festival in BC. We'll be giving away a general admission pass to Sun Fest on a future episode of the Pulse Community Podcast.

And remember to enter to win tickets to see Chilliwack Act July 12th in Parksville. Send us an email with your name, where you live, and name your favorite Chilliwack song. contest@thepulsecommunity.ca. Good luck. What do you say, Peter? Is it time to hit the cafeteria? Check out Mabel's special. 

Peter McCully: She's featuring British cooking this week.

Dave Graham: Oh, I hope she remembers from the last time the Yorkshire pudding isn't a dessert, 

Peter McCully: and the toad in the hole contains no frogs. 

Dave Graham: And there's no rabbit in Welsh rabbit 

Peter McCully:  or cheese in the head cheese. 

Dave Graham: So maybe you think muffins are safe. Maybe just a coffee in a muffin. 

Peter McCully: An English muffin?

Dave Graham: Oh, right. Yeah. No, just coffee.

Rockin Rhonda & The Blues Band: Here comes Peter, here comes Dave, oh listen. Bringing stories, making waves. No missing. Spinning tales in the podcast cave. So to speak. Laughs and insights everywhere. What a treat. Peer and Dave. They're on the mics all right. Join the ride. It's gonna feel just right.