'Sad' Lansdowne Park transit policy hurting festivals, says organizer

The co-ordinator of a free, non-profit festival at Lansdowne Park says the space won't live up to its potential as long as groups putting on big events are forced to pay for extra buses.

Ottawa Asian Fest project co-ordinator Simon Huang said their first Night Market event at Lansdowne Park brought 30,000 people to Lansdowne Park for a taste of Asian food, entertainment and culture last summer, a lot more than they were expecting.

When he met with the City of Ottawa April 18 he said he was told the event passed the attendance threshold of 5,000 people at a Lansdowne Park event, and in a follow-up two weeks ago organizers were told they'd have to pay an estimated $6,000 a day for OC Transpo route 1 and 7 buses to get people to and from the venue.

"We were kind of blindsided," he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Huang said the event's budget is around $65,000, meaning they had to slash their entertainment budget and not bring in a Japanese drum group, a Chinese dance troupe and a playground for kids.

"Because of this we're basically saying 'Sorry guys, would you mind doing it for free' because OC Transpo just took out a big chunk [of our budget]," he said.

"The majority of people say they're not [coming for free] so you're going to see a drastic cutback in terms of culture performances and educational programs."

Lansdowne policy since redevelopment

OC Transpo said these are the terms of the agreement the city reached with the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, which manages Lansdowne Park, before the redeveloped park reopened in 2014.

"It's cost recovery, the direction from council is we recover whatever costs we incur so that's usually operator's wages, maintenance cost, the fuel for running a bus and the wages for any other staff that have to be there," said Pat Scrimgeour, an assistant general manager with OC Transpo.

Scrimgeour said the agreement has worked well to encourage people to walk, cycle or take transit to events such as sporting events and concerts instead of driving.

It's not the same arrangement as the fees the city is collecting for extra transit to Bluesfest and tried unsuccessfully to charge the Ottawa Senators for, said Scrimgeour.

"Every event that's over 5,000 [people at Lansdowne] triggers all the arrangements that are in there, but we're always happy to work with the organizers to figure out the best way to do so," he said.

"As I understand it the organizers of this event are working with OSEG on some other enhanced transportation to and from downtown… if we find ways of working with them that we can bring our costs down, we don't have to charge as much back to them."

'Huge loss'

Huang said they ran free shuttle buses during their event last year and didn't hear about any transportation issues.

He also pointed out they don't give out tickets so bus riders would have to pay to ride the bus anyway, unlike events that have tickets.

Huang said this policy represents a "huge loss" for Lansdowne Park.

"Basically they created this great space and let us hold great community events here, however if you want to hold a major [free] community event you can't afford the price tag… it's unfortunate and it's sad," he said.

Huang said they're never going to charge people to experience Asian culture, so he'll look into moving or cancelling next year's market.