Rockin’ in the Peaks returned for the second year, featuring music from Kim Mitchell, The Trews and more Canadian rock artists performing at the Sun Peaks Centre Stage.
Since last year, the festival grew 10 to 15 per cent, with about 1,200 ticket holders on the Friday and 1,100 on Saturday according to Greg Albrecht, tourism consultant for Tourism Sun Peaks. Tourism Sun Peaks partnered with MRG Live, a live event and concert promoter, as well as local businesses, clubs and residents to meet the demand of the event.
“The lineup was really well received and generally speaking, I thought everybody had a great time,” Albrecht said.
An important element when holding events in Sun Peaks is curating the experiences for not only the guests, but also the artists with dinners, activities and more for visiting musicians.
“Since we’ve started running Sun Peaks Centre Stage as a venue, our intent is to obviously create a really great guest experience,” Albrecht said. “If you’re coming to play at Sun Peaks, you’ll be treated exceptionally well.”
The goal of these events is to drive occupancy and economic benefit to Sun Peaks, Albrecht added, and community collaboration is vital to ensuring they happen smoothly.
Folks trained during the The Sun Peaks Production Academy in May came out to help with setup and operations throughout the weekend allowing for local engagement for the event.
“It’s always a group effort,” Albrecht said.
Suppliers for the event were also local, with Ohana Deli & Market as the VIP food supplier. Sweláps Market in Kamloops partnered with Tourism Sun Peaks to provide food for all the crew throughout the event, and the Rotary Club of Sun Peaks worked the front gates scanning tickets for visitors throughout the day.
“Rotary has been involved with us from the very beginning. They were fantastic,” Albrecht said. “So it’s really a community effort all the way through.”
Some challenges arose with the event because of its overlap with the Calgary Stampede and FIFA World Cup games in Vancouver, with lots of large equipment rented out for those events. This caused some issues trying to source gear including lighting and sound.
“Other than that… its pretty dialed. Everybody knows their role,” Albrecht said. “By and large it worked really well this year.”
Plans have already begun for the third Rockin’ in the Peaks 2027 with dates being released at the end of this summer with the line-up being solidified.
“Working in this community and helping with the strategy and the implementations, it’s been a real gift, and now that the industry; the artists, agents and managers, are recognizing what we’re doing and what Sun Peaks has to offer, it’s been really good,” Albrecht said.
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