Pemberton Music festival might be cancelled due to nearby raging fires
Smoke so thick that Pemberton mayor says he can 'smell and taste' it
Pemberton Music Festival organizers are hoping for rain, so they don't have to uninvite up to 30,000 campers set to revel at the village between July 16 and 19.
Village officials are meeting on Tuesday to hash out how bad the fire risk has to be before they might be forced to cancel the music festival.
"For now it's business as usual until they tell us different," says Maureen Douglas, community relations for the Pemberton Music Festival.
The website promises "comfy camping" and offers advice to visitors, but says little about the Elaho, Boulder Creek or smaller Cougar Creek fires raging in the area.
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Despite the threat and the unusually high smoke and heat, "excitement is growing," says Douglas, based on the positive tweets using the hastag #pembyfest.
"You do have to joke though I'm from here and I've never seen anything like this. We joke you are either a smoked hot dog or a boiled hot dog — depending on whether you leave the windows open or shut!
Pemberton Mayor Mike Richman told CBC that officials are in a wait-and-see mode.
"We haven't gone there (to talks of cancelling) yet, but we are having meetings with managers to determine the threshold," he said.
"If the fires become more of a threat, we certainly don't want to bring 30,000 extra people into the valley that might have to be evacuated."
Festival organizers are being asked to be right on top of fire safety, if the July 16-19 music festival proceeds. This includes educating guests and using sprayers to keep the camping area damp.
"It's still pretty smoky. It's been kind of getting thicker since Sunday. You can smell it and you can taste it. It's a bit disconcerting."