The cost could be going down to bring your child to Timmins’ biggest party of the summer.

Discounted tickets for the Stars and Thunder Festival is being explored as an option by city council. Mayor Steve Black says he—and assumes many around the council table—have received e-mails and complaints on the affordability of tickets for families.

The thought is that the discounted tickets would start at $25 a day, $100 for an eight-day General Admission pass and $200 for an eight-day VIP pass.

“A family of four, you’re looking at $1,100 in the General Admission area if they all need to buy full price,” he said, “It’s our hope that by having a more affordable children’s price, it would lead to some of those families who had been leaning on the side of not attending, or not being able to afford to attend as a family, to save up the money and coming out as a family to enjoy the festivities.”

Black says they wanted to bring this to council first, as it changes the pricing structure officials have in place.

Ticket sales have been a topic of discussion as of late. As of December 29th, just under 28-hundred tickets were sold, a far cry from the over 12-thousand tickets sold in the same time frame for the inaugural festival.

Black says they expected sales to dip this time around, as residents now realize they can just buy a ticket at the festival.

He adds this is why they put in incentives to buy in the first couple days, including a t-shirt giveaway and a draw for Meet and Greets with artists.

Meantime, Councillor Noella Rinaldo raised the thought of if children should even be going.

“This is a music festival, it’s not a family festival,” she said, “Canada Day is perhaps a little different but we have to be very careful for those people that were there.”

She says she’s not discouraging children from attending the festival, but that parents should use discretion on when and where they should be.

Rinaldo recalls going to see The Beach Boys and Roy Orbison 25 years ago with kids and leaving halfway through The Beach Boys’ set “because it was getting dark and people had been drinking.”

She adds it was a different scenario and a different setup with seats they could go to as the day got longer.

At that time, she says she was allowed to bring food and drinks into the venue.

She also points out with last year’s issues regarding long lines for food and bathrooms, having a child running around would be hard for parents to manage.

“We would’ve been hit with a lot more concern than what we were,” she said, “And I know we’re improving it, we’re working on those types of issues. I don’t know if we’re going to be 100 per cent, but bringing children into that event does bring other logistics that I don’t know if we’re ready yet.”

“When I think of the security, when I think of going into the park with strollers. I don’t care if you’re a six year old, you’re still going to have a juice box or something with you, they’re not allowed in.”

Black says it’s better to address this sooner rather than later so they don’t have to refund additional tickets that are bought for kids at the current prices.

Those current prices start at $80 a day—Day 7 is $125 and Canada Day is $150—with an eight-day General Admission pass at $275 and VIP passes at $450.

Those prices go up as of May 1st.

Council will further discuss this in a couple of weeks.

CLICK HERE for the full discussion, under Item 5B.

Filed under: Local News