Greg Agnew/Times & TRanscript
Harold MacKay officially confirmed yesterday the Faith Hill and Tim McGraw Soul 2 Soul tour will come to Magnetic Hill Sept 1.
Faith & Tim concert set up for 50,000 fans
Concert promoter Harold Mackay and City of Moncton concert czar Ian Fowler have confirmed the big news first reported by the Times & Transcript yesterday: Country music superstars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill will play Moncton's Magnetic Hill concert site Saturday, Sept. 1.
The Labour Day weekend concert is certain to be the biggest country show ever held in Eastern Canada, as the husband and wife entertainers' Soul 2 Soul tour was outpaced only by The Rolling Stones and mega-diva Barbra Streisand as the top grossing concert tour in North America last year. This year, they are on track to be the number one draw.
Now country music's king and queen will make Country Rocks the Hill 2007 their only outdoor show this year. It will be their only stop east of Ontario and will come after the tour was originally supposed to end, a testament, said MacKay, to the appeal of putting on a concert in what has become the entertainment capital of Atlantic Canada.
The headliners will perform for two-and-a-half hours, following performances by seven country music acts yet to be named. Plans are for the day of music to start at 2 p.m. and wrap up at 10:30 p.m. MacKay said those acts have not yet been signed, though rising local country acts Shirley Albert and The Divorcees seem poised to at least open the show.
Both bands performed at a media conference yesterday to make the big announcement, an event that drew close to 200 people from across a broad spectrum of the community.
MacKay, the president of Power Promotional Concepts, said it's this kind of widespread community spirit and support that made Moncton carry the day in what, for weeks, has been seen as a choice between this city and Halifax.
"There's a vibe in this city that's hard to explain to people unless you've experienced it," MacKay said, "all the way from your city staff, to the politicians, the people on the street, the media. Everything that happens in this city has a whole different vibe than hundreds of other places. It's the reason you're successful."
MacKay emphasized the role of the media in capturing the community's enthusiasm. He singled out C-103/XL 96 for gathering 6,000 names on a petition to bring Hill and McGraw. He also thanked the Times & Transcript as "a newspaper that covers our events and other events in a tremendous fashion."
Holding up six pages of clippings from the newspaper's coverage of last year's Country Rocks the Hill, MacKay said, "I took several copies of those plus the ones they did for the Rolling Stones and the reaction we had in Nashville was outstanding."
MacKay joked that the Nashville powers-that-be were surprised by two things in the Times & Transcript's photo coverage of those two previous concerts - the lack of igloos and the massive throngs of people.
Praising the work of Ian Fowler, the city's general manager of recreation, parks, tourism and culture, Mackay said, "Ian's the guy who throws bullets, ducks bullets, and the guy you have all the fun with. It's been a long negotiating process and Ian represented your city very well."
MacKay said he and one of his partners, country music promoter Ron Sakamoto, 2006's international country music promoter of the year, leveraged the great success of last August's Country Rocks the Hill featuring Brooks and Dunn and Alan Jackson to get Hill and McGraw here.
MacKay also took time to dispel rumours about an August 18 show in Halifax. He explained that he had originally tentatively booked Moncton and Halifax for the Tim and Faith show on that date, "but now all other rumours you hear about concerts are null and void. The concert's going to happen here and it's going to be a big one."
Though the Magnetic Hill concert site could hold almost twice as many, "we're setting the hill up to do 50,000 people," Mackay said. "That's a huge number for us, a huge number for Nashville, and a huge number for Tim and Faith. We'd consider that a sold out show."
Landing such a major act is an obvious coup for the municipality, which has had its dominance of concert business threatened by Halifax and Charlottetown in the past year.
It also goes a long way to proving money spent on the Magnetic Hill site to land the Rolling Stones was a solid investment for the future, rather than money fed to a white elephant.
"Not too many councils would let a staff person lose three quarters of a million dollars on an event and then persevere and let us do two more." Fowler said to considerable and possibly nervous laughter.
By following up on the Stones with last year's country concert, the city managed to move the concert site into the black. Fowler predicted this summer's show would also end up on the positive side of the ledger. As well, he made a conservative estimate of $6 million in economic spin-offs for the community this year.
The city has set aside another $250,000 to upgrade the Magnetic Hill site this summer.
Tickets for the show go on sale Friday, April 13.
[ March 29, 2007, 07:39: Message edited by: Jesse-Joe ]