Sunfest taking shape as festival of dreams

Duncan businessman Greg Adams is closing in on his dream of building the biggest and best amphitheatre in the province.

Adams broke ground five months ago on what was a heavily treed, 172-acre parcel of private land. His multimillion-dollar vision — Laketown Ranch Music and Recreation Park, located between Lake Cowichan and Youbou — remains a work in progress. But the former NHL forward and construction business veteran is nothing if not persistent.

Adams announced last year he was moving his popular country music festival, Sunfest, from its longtime home at the Cowichan Exhibition in Duncan. Laketown Ranch was approved for zoning in January, and work has continued unabated in the months since.

“Is there levels I want finished? Absolutely. But we’re getting it done,” Adams said Thursday, during an exclusive tour of the multi-use facility’s site.

“Our workers are working double shifts. My kids are coming here at 6:30 in the morning, and we’re going home at 9 o’clock at night.”

Sunfest will make its Laketown Ranch debut on July 28, with headlining sets from country superstars Carrie Underwood and Dierks Bentley. The move to Lake Cowichan has upped the site capacity of Sunfest to 17,000 daily from 15,000. Adams said he is looking to make Laketown Ranch a smaller version of the popular Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington.

Interest in the festival has spiked heading into the 2016 edition, which organizers hope will further cement Sunfest’s reputation as the biggest festival on Vancouver Island. That can only mean good things for the area as a whole, according to Lake Cowichan Mayor Ross Forrest.

“Greg doesn’t just want to have Sunfest at the site, he wants to have the best music festival there.”

Forrest, who lives about two kilometres away from Laketown Ranch, is a Sunfest regular, and will be in attendance once again next month. “I’ve gone four of the last five years, when it wasn’t even in our community, and I’ve enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s a great family event. I think it adds great value to our community.”

Adams personally designed the vast steel girder stage, on which construction has been swift in recent weeks. It points away from the road and into the forest, a bid to reduce the festival’s sound footprint. Adams said he spent $9,000 on a sound study to ensure effects on neighbouring areas are minimal.

The site as a whole has also been coming along after a few slow months, Adams said. Grass is growing in front of the three stage areas. Buildings with a Barkerville look are being constructed in the Laketown Flats, a social area that will boast vendors and food offerings.

Because the majority of attendees will stay on the property over the weekend, camping sites and access to them have been a priority for Adams and his team.

As many as 70 per cent of Sunfest attendees hail from south of Duncan, but traffic coming to and from the event should not be a major problem.

The speed limit in the area will be reduced during the festival, to 60 kilometres an hour from 80 km/h, and Adams has secured the use of private road neighbouring the site, should organizers need additional access.

“They have a pretty comprehensive traffic management plan for the highway that will get traffic off Youbou Road, and the traffic management will happen on [the festival] site for the most part,” said Cpl. Travis Strong of Lake Cowichan’s RCMP detachment.

“The goal is for traffic, when it comes in, to be taken off the road as quickly as possible.”

Adams, who was born and raised in Duncan, loves what the new Sunfest site could do for the Cowichan Valley. He didn’t bother doing an economic impact study. “This festival is absolutely going to have and impact,” he said.

Forrest agreed. “We’re not a long way off the beaten path, but we’re just far enough. I think when we have 50,000 people come over a weekend, a great deal of them are going to be very pleased with what they see, and are going to want to come back.”

mdevlin@timescolonist.com