The Mayor of Merritt  says it was another successful festival for the town.

Rockin’ River Fest ran from Thursday through Sunday in the town of Merritt. Linda Brown says although it did bring about some issues, she felt that overall, they were minimal. “Part of the issues on the traffic and the drinking and driving that I understood from the weekend were issues unrelated to the festival site or the city. But, we had another rave going on down in lower Nichola and the festival site people were trying to get to the rave and the rave trying to get to the festival site and that’s where some of the issues came from.”

Brown says an event that brings in tens of thousands of people into one location is going to bring about its share of issue, but for the most part, the biggest concerns were around traffic congestion. “Certainly had our issues during the time of the festival, but no more than normal given the influx of people that we had here. Most of the calls were local or regional in nature to the RCMP and to the fire. We did have some issues with RCMP. But, the biggest issues seemed to be the traffic congestion.”

 

Mayor Linda Brown says it is one of the biggest economic drivers for the community and is something that business owners in the community might want to see more of. “I think what we’re looking at with ‘Live Nation’ is to have more festivals like this for the city. So, before we go that route we have to ensure we’ve got enough hotel rooms and from what I understand we were booked solid.”