Sound of Music Festival approved for second paid event in Spencer Smith Park

City staff have approved a second ticketed concert in Spencer Smith Park to raise funds for the Burlington Sound of Music Festival (BSOMF). The festival first introduced a paid concert in 2015 to help fund the lineup of acts for the free weekend.Staff consulted with the community via an online survey in December that was available for about a week. According to staff, the majority of the 439 responses supported adding the second paid event.The second ticketed concert will be held Sunday June 10 from noon to 9 pm. There is an existing paid concert in the park the day before (Saturday). Both events are the weekend before the free festival which runs over Father’s Day each year.The announcement was part of a memo to council and senior staff, included in the Council Information Package for Dec. 22. Read the memo here: CIP Dec 22My Take:  I support the festival and understand the need for fundraising, and also believe the park should be available to the community as much as possible. The more paid ticketed events are held there, the more exclusive this community park becomes.Additionally, I don’t believe the public consultation was sufficient: an online only survey that was available for just a week, released right before Christmas, likely missed the attention of many who might wish to comment.