INUVIK - Inuvik's annual End of the Road summer music festival is on tap for the weekend of Aug. 21, with quite a few changes to the program this time around.

At their last meeting in July, Inuvik town councillors agreed to let festival organizers run a beer garden in Jim Koe Park for the first time ever during outdoor musical performances.

Ray Massey, End of the Road Music Festival secretary, and Terrill Reid, then-festival co-ordinator, stand at the proposed new festival site in Jim Koe Park on Aug. 4, 2009 - NNSL file photo

The town's acting senior administrative officer, Jerry Veltman, confirmed the festival had approval to use town facilities to serve alcohol, as long as it had a valid liquor licence. He said all councillors seemed in favour of the idea.

"There was not a lot of debate," he said.

Last year, festival organizers tried unsuccessfully to get approval for a beer garden, although they did hold part of the festival in Jim Koe Park. Organizers are planning licensed events during the day in the park and in the evening at Midnight Sun Recreation Complex until 2 a.m.

Festival secretary Ray Massey, an Inuvik musician, said he's "quite pleased" with council's decision and hopes the beer garden will help boost attendance at this summer's event.

"We feel quite strongly that for a music festival, at least part of it should be outside instead of in a concrete arena," he said. "We can finish the day that way, but to have it all inside has never worked very well."

"With the daytime shows being outside rather than inside, we have much better attendance," he added.

Massey wants to see a lot of people out to enjoy primarily local talent - all of which he's keeping quite hush-hush as organizers finalize the line up. But he did say all of the bands will be from NWT and Yukon, of course featuring several of Inuvik's own performers who won't shy away from old-time music or youth entertainment.

The festival committee is tiny this year, headed by Don Craik, with the notable absence of former co-ordinator Terrill Reid, who had been consistently involved in planning since the festival first kicked off nearly six years ago.

"This year we're being a little more restrained than most years. There was talk of possibly not even having one this year because our funds are rather slim," Massey said. But ultimately, he added, "we don't want to have a break in our history."

"And it's not that hard to put on a festival with local and close-to-local entertainers."

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