The largest annual music festival in the Northeast is changing venues for this year, at least. In doing so, Rock on the River is returning to its roots, at Participark beside the Mattagami River.
Timmins Festival and Events Committee chair John Olaveson says the ground at the Hollinger Park is too badly damaged. The city offered to replace it for now with gravel.
“Why spend the extra money on just temporary fixing it,” he asks rhetorically, “when we can come up with a plan where we’ll have a nice park, a nice venue, a facility to use in the future.”
That means grass, which Olaveson hopes can be accomplished in time for next year’s tenth anniversary of Rock on the River. He calls it “a little hiccup.”
“It’s a reduction in capacity. Participark, I think our capacity there is 3,500 people rather than the Hollinger, 6,000.”
Olaveson says all the artists concur with the arrangement, and all VIP and general admission ticket holders will be accommodated. Tickets are still available.
