The North Cariboo Joint Advisory Committee held their second vote Tuesday (March 11) on holding a concert at the West Fraser Centre. The city's events coordinator Ksenya Dorwart told the committee in November 2024 her goal was to bring the Snotty Nose Rez Kids to Quesnel for a concert.
At the Feb. 12 meeting, the committee expressed some concern over costs of the concert and the style of music the hip hop duo performs.
"I'm a senior and after watching the Super Bowl halftime show, I thought 'no that's really not for me' and I don't think it's for a lot of people," mayor Ron Paull said at the Feb. 12 meeting. "I do understand there's a younger audience out there that may be attracted to this. I know that I certainly wouldn't be in the audience."
At the March 11 meeting Paull and other members of the committee expressed some concerns about holding a concert that risks the city and district losing money given economic conditions and the recurring threat of tariffs from the U.S.
"This is not the time to be taking that financial risk," Paull said at the March 11 meeting. Another concern he raised is that the goal of the government holding concerts is to encourage private organizations to eventually host them, but with grants and community sponsorships supporting the Snotty Nose Rez Kids concert, Paull is concerned it won't attract private businesses who wouldn't be eligible for those grants and likely wouldn't see the same level of community support.
"It may throw sort of a false light on the financial viability," he said.
CRD area A director Mary Sjostrom was also opposed to the concert.
"I honestly feel very strongly that this isn't something that the city and the CRD should be in, particularly at this time," she said. Sjostrom, who was mayor of Quesnel when the West Fraser Centre was approved, said at the Feb. 12 meeting she was under the impression Quesnel and the CRD took on one concert in 2023 was as a proof of concept for private organizations to bring in concerts of their own.
The report at the March 11 meeting said, "it is unlikely in the current market that concerts will be held in the WFC if the City/CRD
doesn’t host them."
Since the Feb. 12 meeting Dorwart has worked to bring in funding for the concert from organizations, grants and businesses. After a month of her work, the expected cost of tickets was reduced from $60 to $46.25. A total of 1,000 tickets would need to be sold at that price point to break even as things stand.
One of the major sponsorships, Dorwart, secured was $10,000 from Lhtako Dene Nation with the understanding they would be co-presenting the event. Funding and donations were also secured from Craig's Table, Pivot Electric, the Friendship Centre and Barkerville Brewing. There have also been several grant applications, with another $2,000 going towards the event if the bid is successful with both.
There have also been requests to corporate sponsors to fund around $30,000 but those have not yet been confirmed.
While Dorwart was able to get the band to lower their fee by $8,000 with the condition that they get 80 per cent of profits from ticket sales, some members of the committee were against that idea.
"We have the potential, if we get a lot of sponsorships, that $8,000 is totally wiped off the table and we then don't benefit from it," Coun. Martin Runge said.
The director of community services, Jeff Norburn explained the district's position in negotiations would be that grants and community sponsorships don't play into the 80/20 split with the band it would solely be based on ticket sales versus costs to hold the event.
While there was some push back, a majority of the committee voted in favour of the concert. Coun. Scott Elliott said bringing the duo to Quesnel would be a great decision for the committee.
"They're pretty powerful and they bring a really strong message of unity and it's wonderful to see," he said. He added that he believes they would be able to attract people to come see the performance. "We heard loud and clear in the community when we did build the arena that people really did want to have concerts. Period. That was the vast majority of people."
Elliott added that it could be a huge boon to local businesses, restaurants and hotels as people would likely come from outside of Quesnel to attend the concert. He said he wants to be able to support bringing Indigenous artists in, support the community and support local businesses through bringing the concert to Quesnel.
CRD area C director John Massier said it would be good to see a pair of Indigenous, northern B.C. locals come to Quesnel to preform. He pointed out they are up for three Juno awards and they've recently released an album.
"I think there's a good indication this would be a successful concert," he said.
Coun. Tony Goulet was also in favour of it, especially seeing the work Dorwart has done to secure more funding.
"If we say no to a concert coming to Quesnel, say 'we don't like this', it's going to get around," Goulet said. "We've had one concert here, The Reklaws, and if we're going on that, basing it on that, we just had one. I think we need to have multiple so I can understand if we're going to make any money or not. It just makes sense to try."
The committee approved the concert with Paull, Coun. Debra McKelvie and Sjostrom opposed.
After the Reklaws concert in 2023 at the West Fraser Centre failed to break even, the committee made it a goal to have another one at a better a time to prove that it is viable for private groups to hold concerts at the venue.
The Snotty Nose Rez Kids are an Indigenous hip hop duo from Kitamaat Village in the Haisla First Nation. They're up for rap single of the year, rap album of the year and contemporary Indigenous artist or group of the year at the 2025 Juno Awards, which will be held March 30.
