Likely, B.C. – Likely, ground zero of last year’s tailing pond breach at Mt. Polley, is showing its “resiliency” exactly one year after the environmental disaster shook the tiny Cariboo community.

Cariboo Regional District Area “F” director, Joan Sorley, who lives in neighbouring Big Lake, says that was demonstrated by this weekend’s music festival entitled “Pull up Your Dam Breaches.”

“It’s a little bit of black humour but it’s to celebrate the resiliency of the community,” she says. “To celebrate the fact Likely is open for business and the lake (Quesnel Lake) is as beautiful as ever.”

Sorley says it was important the community banded together following a extraordinarily difficult year.

“The community has been through a really tough time the last year. This emergency, which carried on for months, and with all the water uncertainty.”

But despite all the bleakness, she says the announced restricted restart of the mine has many in the area looking forward.

“They’re happy that the mine is opening, albeit restricted,” says Sorley. “Mostly the community is happy for that and they enjoy the support of the mine for their economy as well as many of them work at the mine and rely on it for their bread and butter.”

She acknowledges though not everyone is in favour of the reopening.

“Yes, it’s fair to say that there’s going to be varying levels of disagreement. Everybody isn’t always going to be happy,” says Sorley. “But most people are happy to see it opening and understand that we need this for the economy.”

But for some she admits, that may never be enough. “The people in the community, I think they’ve seen what’s happened and they’ve lost their trust, they’ve lost their trust in the company and in the government.”