LAKETOWN ROCK
Where: Laketown Ranch Music and Recreation Park, 8811-2 Youbou Rd., Lake Cowichan
When: July 22-23
Tickets: $61-$432 from laketownranch.com
Campsite culture will be a top priority for the 4,500 fans expected to attend the Laketown Rock festival, which features sets from John Fogerty, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider, Keb’ Mo’, Big Sugar, and Wide Mouth Mason, among others.
Rock-hungry fans are expected to arrive early for the weekend event, in order to secure prime camping spots for the weekend. The classic rock-themed festival, which is held at Lake Cowichan’s Laketown Ranch Music and Recreation Park, has not been staged since 2018, when Collective Soul and Colin James headlined the event.
The demographic has been under-served for an extended amount of time, according to festival manager Mike Hann. “We’re excited for the return of that format to the Ranch,” Hann said. “This going to be an old-fashioned rock ‘n’ roll show.”
Fogerty and Cochrane are well-known to Island audiences, but Keb’ Mo’, Big Sugar and Wide Mouth Mason do not play the market as regularly as they did at one point years ago. That adds an air of excitement to some of the bookings.
“This was built around John Fogerty — you can’t top having a legend on your site,” Hann said. “But we really wanted to represent some other Canadian acts, and have some regional acts, too.”
The latter will be represented by six acts with roots in the area, including Garret T. Willie (Campbell River), Sarah Osbourne & The Magic Buttons (Gabriola Island), the Poubelles (Victoria), Liam Mackenzie and the Moondogs (Victoria), Lance Lapointe Band (Port Alberni), and Littlehead (Chemainus).
It’s an extremely busy time of year for Hann and his crew, who are immersed in the day-to-day operations of the 260-acre site come festival season. Thousands of campers left Laketown Ranch on July 3, following sets from Wu-Tang Clan, Arkells and the Glorious Sons at the three-day Laketown Shakedown festival. And thousands of early arrivals will make their return for the Sunfest country music festival, just days after Laketown Rock wraps.
That the site was activated for the first time this year just under three weeks ago, for Laketown Shakedown, and it has made all the difference, Hann said. Rust from the pandemic lockdown has long since vanished.
“I’m super proud of everybody to get it to where it is right now,” Hann said. “The site has never looked better, it has never run better. The efficiency is there. A lot of people [for Laketown Shakedown] had never been there before, and it felt great.”
Two stages will be activated for Laketown Rock — the main stage, where headliners perform, and the “after-party” stage located nearby — but the footprint is much smaller than for its sister events at the site. That was by design, according to Hann. It has been a stressful two years for many people, and the audience for the acts assembled generally wants to operate within a smaller radius while on site.
“This crowd is about pulling up a chair and enjoying the concert,” he said. “But there’s other people we’re hearing from about this event, the people who are the most excited, from other demographics, too. These fans all just want to have fun.”
