Keloha gone, is COG far behind?

One of Kelowna's two big summer music festivals is going by the wayside.

Photo: Contributed - Sarah Keller

After three years of losing money promoters have announced Keloha will not be returning in 2015

Wet Ape owner, Scott Emslie confirmed today the Keloha Music Festival will not be returning in 2015.

Emslie says his company has asked the mid-July weekend be left open for a new event.

"We are working on bringing an event back on that weekend but it will be a different concept. We are at the brainstorming stage at this point," says Emslie.

"There is definitely nothing concrete...we would just like to find something that will work financially on that weekend. We ran Keloha for three years and it lost money each year."

Emslie says, with the current market conditions, Keloha is not financially viable in Kelowna.

"If we do another event in Kelowna in 2015 it won't compete with Center of Gravity. It won't be a music festival like we had with Keloha. That other event would have a different format," says Emslie.

As for Center of Gravity, Emslie says he will make an official announcement later this week on its immediate future.

"At this point my statement is fairly generic, I'm just saying we're optimistic Center of Gravity will return to Kelowna and it will likely be on the same weekend as it was last year," says Emslie.

"We are still finalizing a few things right now so I'm not at the point where I can officially state whether it is coming back or not."

Center of Gravity lost money in 2014 due mainly to changes centering around security and its move off the August long weekend.

The event did not sell out for the first time, prompting suggestions Center of Gravity would not be back without a return to the long weekend.

Emslie says he has a very strong plan for 2015 and is confident the festival will get back on its feet if they are able to finalize everything with the city.

That, according to Emslie, includes keeping some costs in check.

"It is very expensive to put on these events so one of the things we are working on with the city right now is keeping the costs manageable.

A lot of the bills from the city and from the RCMP have been going up each year. We need to make sure we keep those in check and we keep them at a manageable level. We are not asking not to pay an RCMP bill, we just want to make sure that bill is at a manageable level for us."

He adds a return to the August long weekend is not part of that plan.