{"id":7182,"date":"2014-06-25T18:13:59","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T22:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=7182"},"modified":"2014-06-25T18:13:59","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T22:13:59","slug":"free-admission-rock-bands-will-remain-at-ribfest-this-year-following-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/free-admission-rock-bands-will-remain-at-ribfest-this-year-following-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"Free admission, rock bands will remain at Ribfest this year following grant"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

For many Aurorans, and visitors to the Town, the annual Ribfest is a highlight of the waning days of summer, highlighted by music, food, and free admission.<\/p>\n

After months of doubt, however, Aurora confirmed last week that this all-important free admission would once again be the order of the day this year. <\/p>\n

Last December, Council approved something very different. They directed staff to set an upset limit of a $10 admission charge per person, through wristbands, on Friday and Saturday evenings, to take in headliner performances. <\/p>\n

It was a contentious decision at the Council table at the time, but a grant from Central Counties Tourism in the amount of $20,000 made the worry all for naught. <\/p>\n

\u201cStaff have now received appropriate funding to offset the 2014 event enhancements [and] there is no longer a need to implement the selling of wristbands at the 2014 Aurora Ribfest,\u201d said Al Downey, Aurora\u2019s Director of Parks and Recreation, in a report to Councillors last week. \u201cThe 2014 Aurora\u2019s Rifest will continue to be offered to the community, for 31 hours, over a three-day weekend in September. However, as in 2013, event attendees within the event area after 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday will still need to be the age of majority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why? Based on last year\u2019s souped up event to mark Aurora\u2019s Sesquicentennial Celebrations, rock bands will once again punctuate the evening\u2019s entertainment. Although those names are still under wraps, all could be revealed as early as next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo classic rock headliner bands have been secured, one for each of Friday and Saturday evenings, but unfortunately, due to contract disclosure commitments, the names of the bands cannot be announced until after Wednesday, July 2, 2014. The headliner bands will perform at 9 p.m. on each evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many members around the Council table who spoke out about having an admission fee for the first time this year, word of the $20,000 grant was welcome news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very glad to see that we were successful in the pursuit of that grant, and we can do it for free this year,\u201d said Councillor Michael Thompson. \u201cI know myself and Councillor Humfryes were a little hesitant about charging for it and were anxious to hear the news, so this is great.\u201d
\nMayor Geoffrey Dawe expressed a similar sentiment: \u201cThere will be two smokin\u2019 hot bands, but we can\u2019t tell anybody yet!\u201d<\/p>\n

During last year\u2019s discussions over charging an admission fee, some Councillors such as Evelyn Buck and Wendy Gaertner said they were not opposed to making Ribfest a money maker for the Town, in addition to the number of people it brings into the community from elsewhere. This was a position reiterated by Councillor Buck last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are putting a substantial amount of money into their pocket through Ribfest and I have never understood why it should cost us money so other people could make money,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, we have a report telling us we have $20,000, we can hire a couple of great bands and for entertainment. It\u2019s a damn good deal for people eating ribs up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s Ribfest headliners included Honeymoon Suite.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many Aurorans, and visitors to the Town, the annual Ribfest is a highlight of the waning days of summer, highlighted by music, food, and free admission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1RQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 13:46:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}