From May to September 1991, towns and cities across British Columbia hosted large-scale performances with acts such as Rita MacNeil, Colin James, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Joan Baez, John Denver and more drawing crowds around the province. These performances were all part of Music ’91 RoadShow weekends, one of which took place on Blackcomb Mountain in July.
From July 12 to 14, 1991, the mainstage on Blackcomb Mountain next to the Rendezvous Lodge saw headling performances by Linda Ronstadt, Smokey Robinson and Natalie Cole, and Boz Scaggs. The mainstage, however, was just one part of the Music ’91 RoadShow. RoadShows also included two BC Tel Centennial Community ShowCase stages featuring amateur and lesser-known acts, Musicians’ Workshops with some of the performers, merchandise and food vendors, and the KidsOwn area, which included the DRUMASAURUS (a dinosaur made of drums), workshops, storytelling, face painting and a “Walk-On-Synthesizer.” RoadShow attendees could also take part in Blackcomb’s summer activities and go hiking, biking, or skiing on the glacier.
Despite less than ideal weather, a ticket price that some people thought was too expensive ($36), and a few stopped chairlifts while downloading, Blackcomb Mountain named the event a success, with over 14,000 tickets sold to the three mainstage performances, and one Blackcomb spokesperson even said that “the RoadShow has given the mountain a number of new ideas about similar events in future summers.” Those who attended also praised the staff and management for their work hosting the event.
Music ’91 was not without controversies, both centred on the Whistler RoadShow and the program as a whole. Music ’91 was a tourism marketing initiative put on by the province that aimed to increase tourism and encourage residents to stay and spend money in BC instead of going across the border after the introduction of the GST at the beginning of the year. That spring, the Social Credit party leader and premier Bill Vander Zalm resigned amidst a conflict of interest controversy surrounding the sale of his Fantasy Gardens flower garden and theme park. Following this, some saw Music ’91 as an effort to gain support for the SoCred party in the upcoming election, though the program had been in development for quite a while.
The location of the Music ’91 RoadShow on Blackcomb Mountain also raised some questions. According to Whistler Mountain president Charles Young, the RoadShow was originally supposed to take place on Whistler Mountain not far from the gondola-accessed Roundhouse Lodge. However, as the mountain and Music ’91 were finalizing the details, Whistler Mountain switched its food-service taps from Pepsi to Coca Cola. As Pepsi was a sponsor of Music ’91, the venue was soon switched to Blackcomb Mountain, a move that was confirmed by Music ’91 executive vice-president James Conrad. Though Whistler Mountain was “surprised” at the change, Young told the Whistler Question that they did not regret switching brands as “Pepsi has never shown the initiative in working with us that it’s shown in working to take Music ’91 away from us.”
Across the province, Music ’91 was connected to around 700 summer concerts and festivals; co-produced additional events such as First Night on New Year’s Eve, the DuMaurier Jazz Festival, and the Labatt’s Canada Live concert series; sold about 129,000 tickets; and, according to the report of Auditor General George Morfitt, cost $26 million to put on, with $19 million coming from gaming profits. Some did not consider Music ’91 as a whole to be success, with questions about tendering and contracts, the use and costs of international contracts, and the increase in budget from the original estimate of $12 million.
In the provincial election that fall, the SoCred party won only seven seats, 40 fewer than they had held previously, and the NDP became the governing party of BC. In May 1992, the new NDP Tourism Minister Darlene Marzari stated that Music ’91 had been a failure in its goal of increasing tourism. In his report, Morfitt wrote that “The government did not effectively monitor or control the scope of the project” and recommended that “any future commitment of public money be preceded by an assessment of risk and a cost-benefit analysis” and “that any project have a clear definition of objectives and how those objectives will be achieved and assessed.”
Despite these criticisms, Blackcomb’s Music ’91 RoadShow seems to have been well received in Whistler. While it was certainly well advertised, the RoadShow was not, however, the only musical performances taking place in Whistler in 1991. In August, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra performance on Whistler Mountain drew just over 5,00 attendees and both the Arts Council and the Whistler Centre for Business and the Arts had performances lined up throughout the year, including the Music in the Mountains concert series.