Huge EDM concert put at risk after Vancouver gives last-minute rejection
After a major EDM concert weekend was preliminarily approved for this May long weekend, organizers say City staff reversed its decision, putting the event at risk.
The Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation approved an application from Blueprint and Live Nation Canada to host the Foundation Volume 10.0 at New Brighton Park on Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19.
The Vancouver-based Blueprint Events had been planning the event since late 2022 and applied to use the East Vancouver waterfront park for the concert, which could draw thousands of guests each day.
However, the founder of Blueprint, Alvaro Prol, told Daily Hive that in February, the park board said it was no longer interested in hosting the weekend-long event as it had concerns regarding the sound.
Daily Hive contacted the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation but it declined to comment.
“The event should have already been announced months before that, but since we couldn’t get it through to the council, we had to wait and wait. And once we got through to council, we’re like, ‘Okay, we’re in the clear,’ and then here we are again. Then months after that, it was a no after all,” Prol said.
Blueprint Events/Instagram
Prol said that since 2023, organizers have started booking talent, planning the event, and investing thousands of dollars when the park board said it would host the event in a City park.
Despite working with the City before, Prol said working with Vancouver is challenging.
“We find Vancouver to be a very difficult place to do business. And especially for cultural music things. I just think it has never been easy for us to do so,” he said.
He told Daily Hive that it’s why Blueprint hosts Western Canada’s largest summer music festival, FVDED in the Park, in Surrey.
“That’s why going to Surrey… is a lot more enticing for us.”
Prol said the Vancouver Park Board apologized and said it is learning from this experience.
“They saved our butts”
After being put in a tough spot, Prol said, “We were kind of against the wall,” as the company feared cancelling artists and bearing sunken costs for the production.
However, the concert was salvaged as a major event after the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) agreed to allow Foundation Volume 10.0 on its site.
“They saved our butts,” Prol said.
Foundation Volume 10.0, which is now confirmed to take place this May long weekend at the PNE, will be live on Monday.
Prol added that Blueprint hopes to work with the City again to host an event at a park.
“We hope next year we can kind of figure out.”
With files from Daniel Chai and Megan Devlin
Follow Channels and Categories