- Adam Dietrich - Peace River Record-Gazette
- April 2, 2014
PeaceFest has confirmed its line-up for this year. As speculated Nazerath is returning, but it will be Tom Cochrane with Red Rider who is headlining.
On Friday July 11, there will be, the Honey Cowboy, Kickback, Duane Steele and Gord Bamford. Then on Saturday PeaceFest has confirmed Shawn Pander, C.Alice, Nazareth, and Tom Cochrane with Red Rider, according to festival president Orren Ford.
PeaceFest, is an annual summer concert which started after a flood in 1997 that devastated downtown businesses in Peace River.
The immediate aim of PeaceFest was to get the downtown businesses running again. As the festival continued to grow year after year organizers switched the festival’s support to community infrastructure.
According to Ford, this year they’re switching focus again, this time towards infrastructure and community development regionally.
“It’s become such a big thing for the surrounding areas too,” said Ford. “This year we thought we should focus Peacefest more regionally to reflect that.”
In the past PeaceFest has helped fund local non-profit groups by donating festival proceeds to those non-profits in exchange for labour at PeaceFest.
“In the past we’ve had people from non-profits working tickets, or liquor sales,” said Ford. “The money made at the festival then goes back to helping those groups.”
This year the board is opening up the opportunity to groups from outside Peace River who want to apply.
Additionally festival volunteers will be coming from all over the region, including emergency services volunteers from Northern Sunrise County and County of Northern Lights.
Ford says they have just finished tweaking the application forms for community groups and they should be available online soon for groups to apply.
The PeaceFest board has also revamped the donation system.
“We needed to change how donating worked,” said Ford. “We would like to find a way to make this easier to fund the festival year after year.”
With that in mind they have set donation levels for individuals, small businesses, big business and all options in between.
“We’d like to make it possible for people who want to help PeaceFest grow and to support it, to be able to help,” said Ford.
Tickets will be available at Rivercity Cinemas, Peace Country Co-op and Village Sound in Peace River and in Grimshaw they will be available at Beyond 2000 starting April 1. Tickets will also be available in High Level at Kit Office Plus start April 3.
Weekend passes are $100 and single day passes are $65 for each day. Prices will go up the day of although Ford suggests buying tickets in advance as there is limited capacity.