Mike Youds
Kamloops Daily News

Canada's No. 1 country music festival and the country music capital that hosts it have a new lease on life.

After a year in hiatus, Merritt Mountain Music Festival returns July 7-10, 2011, Claude Lelievre, general manager of Active Mountain Entertainment and a festival co-founder, announced Wednesday.

Although the first headliner won't be announced until November, it didn't take long for word to spread. There are simply too many fans out there clamouring for a revival.

A standing army of volunteers is keen to rejoin the excitement.

High demand by the general public was a key factor in the company's decision to carry on.

"It's amazing," Lelievre said. "The phone calls and emails have been overwhelming."

After 17 years of producing the B.C. Interior's largest entertainment event — attracting as many as 140,000 festival visitors one year — family-owned Active Mountain folded its tent immediately after the 2009 festival, citing financial burdens despite a top draw in headliner Kenny Chesney.

Lelievre said at the time that the festival would be back, but when his invitation to bring aboard new financial partners didn't have the desired effect, hope for a revival began to flag.

"We just worked at it," he said without divulging details. "We've spent the last year working on it, thinking and refining it."

Some of Active Mountain's larger creditors have come aboard as partners, he added.

"The company has come around."

With much of the North American music industry still weathering a sluggish economy, the time is ripe for signing entertainers to the festival, he noted.

"This is probably one of the best years in the business because it has been slow in the concert business."

September's Electric Mountain Music Festival, which had touted itself as a potential successor to Mountainfest, was a case in point. The hip-hop, electronica festival failed to win enough audience to keep it going. It won't be back next year, Lelievre said.

"It was very poorly managed. I would never want to live that experience again."

As for Mountainfest, the format will remain as it was. In 2009, the event was reined in with reserved-only camping and an end to the wide-open, wild partying of Camp ground. That change was exaggerated by "viral marketing," he said.

"The old Mountainfest is not changing. We'll still have fun and sunshine and great country music."
Tickets will now be sold expressly by the company through its website and toll-free phone number.