The Ever After Music Festival has added another day to its annual event at Bingemans.
Beyond Oz Productions announced the pre-party will be held on Thursday.
In previous years the festival was only three days long, Friday through Sunday.
The President of the company, Gabriel Mattacchione, was in Kitchener Monday afternoon as a noise exemption recommendation was discussed by councillors.
The concert will run from June 6 to 9. The noise exemption includes Thursday, Friday and Saturday until 11 p.m. and Sunday until 9 p.m.
Coun. Sarah Marsh brought forward an amendment to the recommendation that would cut the noise exemption off at 9 p.m. on Thursday because it is a school and work night.
The amendment was defeated.
The original recommendation was carried by an anonymous vote.
Mattacchione said that they experienced extensive traffic issues on Friday of last year. They hope that by adding Thursday to the event it will improve the experience for concert goers and stagger when people arrive.
According to Mattacchione, Thursday is expected to be a smaller night with less attendance. They will be using their second smaller stage.
In 2018, Beyond Oz Productions hired a new production company in charge of sound, and also dropped the sound levels from 60 to 55 decibels.
Staff and City councilors agreed that last year’s event went very smoothly, and the communication between the city and the production company continues to be very good.
Last year, the event continued past the schedule end time on Sunday, however the festival was not charged because there were no complaints by residents.
