With thousands of people in Cowichan this weekend for the annual country music festival, Sunfest, local businesses will undoubtedly see an increase in sales, but the economic benefit will vary depending on the business.
Kurt Pyrch is the general manager at the Cowichan Valley Best Western and said the hotel is pretty much full most weekends in the summer anyway.
“I think where Sunfest really helps, to be honest, is the local liquor stores. They see a good upturn in business,” he suggested.
“You get thousands of people sitting in one spot in the hot sun listening to good music. There seems to be a predilection to enjoying that music with a cold beer.”
Hundreds of RVs can be seen parked around the concert venue and patrons are allowed to bring alcohol onto the campsites, but there are no liquids allowed on the site itself.
Chamber of Commerce President George Gates said an estimated 12,000 visitors and locals alike will be spending money this weekend and the economic benefits will reverberate into the coming months and years.
‘It’s a very high profile event,” he said. “Other people are... watching the media and they see all the Sunfest media talk and they see about the Cowichan Valley, so it makes them think about coming here.”
In terms of an influx of business at Pyrch’s hotel this weekend, he said the restaurant and pub would likely see a spike in patrons if it were to rain.
Lucky for campers and concert goers, there’s sun in the forecast for the 2012 Sunfest.
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