Fougere OK with overlap of folk festival, Brooks concerts

The overlap of two Garth Brooks concerts and the Regina Folk Festival in August has generated some angst.

One of those who complained was Colter Wall, who is to perform at the folk festival in Victoria Park on Aug. 10 — the same night that Brooks is to hold his second of two concerts at Mosaic Stadium.

On Tuesday, Wall tweeted that the City of Regina is hurting the festival by allowing Brooks to play on the same weekend on which the folk festival is to be held. Wall completed his tweet by saying, “Pretty damn disrespectful.”

Mayor Michael Fougere has heard the complaints and, during a chat with 980 CJME’s John Gormley on Thursday, pointed out that Brooks — not the city — picked the Aug. 9-10 dates for his shows.

Fougere also said that people in Regina “have to think about (the) big picture here.”

“We have the Folk Festival that has been here for 50 years; it will be successful,” he said. “The executive director says it will be successful and people know what’s happening. We have a unique opportunity to have Garth Brooks here.”

In Fougere’s mind, having Brooks in Regina while the Folk Festival is on will only add to the magnitude of both events.

“We have a lot of people who are going to travel — not just Regina residents, but people from around Western Canada and maybe from the United States — who are going to come in and watch both things happen,” Fougere said. “I think this is a success for everyone.

“Is it a perfect situation? No, it’s not. But I think we should rise above this and (not) say, ‘Because one group is here, it hurts another group.’ I don’t see it that way. I see this as being everyone benefits from this one.

“We should all be very proud of the success of the Folk Festival and also the unique opportunity to see two concerts with Garth Brooks. We all win in this, I think.”

Vying for venues

One caller to Gormley’s show suggested Regina misses out on a lot of musical acts because of the size and amenities of the Brandt Centre.

Fougere suggested that talks about replacing the aging facility are only preliminary in nature, but Evraz Place recently conducted a survey that showed patrons want a new concert venue.

Fougere pointed out that the city paid handsomely for Mosaic Stadium — which can be used for concerts — so putting more money into the construction of a new arena likely would require some help.

“We do need to engage other partners to do that,” Fougere said. “The taxpayers, I think, might find that a bit of a taxing fatigue if we actually put more public money into an arena without having private-sector investment to go with this as well.”