{"id":784,"date":"2013-03-19T12:31:44","date_gmt":"2013-03-19T16:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=784"},"modified":"2013-03-26T12:30:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T16:30:07","slug":"lucid-pulls-plug-on-aurora-live-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/lucid-pulls-plug-on-aurora-live-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucid pulls plug on Aurora Live! festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Remaining organizers behind Aurora Live! have pulled the plug on the music festival.<\/p>\n

George Roche, director of Lucid Community Development, pulled out of the Festival, which was slated for Machell Park for the last weekend of July citing numerous problems with going forward.<\/p>\n

The move came little over a week after many of the big names attached to Lucid, including Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex, former broadcaster Christine Bentley, Canadian Idol winners, and So You Think You Can Dance Canada finalists, citing “philosophical” differences with Mr. Roche.<\/p>\n

Councillors were also due this week to give their verdict on Lucid\u2019s plans for the festival. Municipal staff were tasked by Council with doing some further review with Lucid\u2019s proposal and to \u201cmeet with the organizers to ensure that all municipal requirements are addressed and are compliant.\u201d
\n\u201cThe role of the Town with regards to the proposed Music Festival has been reduced down to the issuance of a permit,\u201d said Al Downey in his report on the latest Festival Proposal. \u201cNo services in-kind or partnerships with other Town events are requested or contemplated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Downey also noted he had contacted Lucid\u2019s references, as directed by Council, an issue which had become thorny between certain elected representatives.<\/p>\n

\"IN<\/a>

IN HAPPIER TIMES — Members of Lucid Community Development heralded their new music festival at Aurora Council in February. From left: Canadian Idol winner Brian Melo, Councillor John Abel, Lucid’s George Roche, So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s Miles Faber, broadcaster Christine Bentley, Councillor Paul Pirri, Mayor Geoffrey Dawe, Councillors Sandra Humfryes and Evelyn Buck, Canadian Idol’s Farley Flex, and Councillors John Gallo and Michael Thompson.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTwo references were contacted; however, it was clear that neither reference had been involved with Lucid for a music festival, but were involved in their fundraising initiative developing a coupon book,\u201d said Mr. Downey. \u201cThe newly formed partnership of Lucid has not operated a Music Festival, as proposed, to our knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Auroran, Mr. Roche said he had enough of being \u201cbadgered\u201d by Council and spoke of the wars of words that had erupted between the key players in this that spread throughout the media \u2013 traditional and social.<\/p>\n

He also cited anonymous emails that had made the rounds questioning his integrity and his family life, allegations he said were untrue but the lingering issue would raise a \u201cred flag\u201d for people, whether they are potential partners, Councillors or readers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it is not true, it may govern the manner in which they make decisions to become involved in the festival,\u201d he said.
\nElaborating on the reasons why he was pulling out of Aurora Live, Mr. Roche also cited developing friction between himself and Councillor John Abel, one of the proposal\u2019s staunchest supporters since the company first came to Town in January looking for ways to become involved with the Aurora 150 celebrations.<\/p>\n

Although they arrived late in the game and that ship had already sailed, it was suggested there might be an opportunity to work with the Town to develop a new music festival based on the organizers of the Aurora Jazz Festival\u2019s decision to take their festival to Newmarket this summer.
\nCouncillor Abel, who was also in attendance at the January meeting, helped get the ball rolling on their proposal with municipal staff and members of Council.<\/p>\n

Mr. Roche said he noticed \u201csignificant oscillations\u201d between himself and Councillor Abel, particularly when it came to talent. He claims Councillor Abel \u201cdemanded\u201d one particular local artist be paid $1,200 for the concert in a \u201cnepotistic\u201d way.<\/p>\n

Councillor Abel declined to comment on Mr. Roche\u2019s allegation other than to say commenting on the claim would \u201cattack [Mr. Roche\u2019s] personal character rather than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added it wasn\u2019t \u201cappropriate\u201d that he was singled out in this way, and said his confidence in the group started to waiver with Lucid\u2019s mass defections earlier this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all the adversity, Mr. Roche confidently forged ahead, however, in my mind, it became apparent that the breakup of the group would have a significant impact on the execution of the proposal and this could put some within our community at risk, so for now I feel I must step back and withdraw my support.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge is the only one left standing and he, in my mind, by himself, is not going to be able to pull this off without a team and I feel if he goes forward he is not going to be able to fulfil his obligations to make sure that is done in the proper detail. It is a huge risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Lucid pulling out, however, Councillor Abel said other interested parties have since come forward to put forward a music festival \u201caware of the politics and aware of what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the Town does want a music festival and we\u2019re going to get a music festival,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be delivered but it is just not going to happen at this time with Lucid Productions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changing nature of the proposals brought forward by Lucid since they filed their first one with the Town has been a source of much consternation from Councillors. The latest proposal, which was submitted for staff review and was to be up for consideration this week included a model which they billed as \u201cboth effective and sustainable\u201d and the grand finale of a series of events designed to engage residents, businesses, and youth.
\nThe Town of Aurora also stood to gain 25 per cent of net proceeds brought in by Aurora Live under the final proposal.<\/p>\n

Looking at the latest proposal, Councillor Chris Ballard, one of the most vocal critics of the whole Lucid saga said what is expected to be before Council this week answered many of the questions he had.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a lot more lucid and a lot more clear of what the [Town\u2019s] requirements are and I can only wish the first iteration that was put before us was this clear,\u201d he said. \u201cIf [future groups looking to create a music festival] want Town involvement, they have to be very, very clear with what they are asking for and what the financial implications are for the Town. I wouldn\u2019t dismiss it out of hand, but they have to be very clear on what it is they want.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Remaining organizers behind Aurora Live! have pulled the plug on the music festival. George Roche, director of Lucid Community Development, pulled out of the Festival, which was slated for Machell Park for the last weekend of July citing numerous problems with going forward. The move came little over a week after many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":959,"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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/auroralivereduced.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-cE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 18:15:27","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\/784","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=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}