Prince George, B.C. – The organizer of a music, arts and culture festival which will raise money for humane societies says this will be the first of several events which will benefit the community and people of Prince George.

Jordan Corrigal and his business partner, who operate under the corporate name of Maioha Aroha Productions, are putting on Woof Stock 2015 at Vivian Lake from Augsut 27^th to 31^st.  The event will feature over 90 artists on three stages over the course of the five days.  Headline bands include Chilliwack, trooper, Twisted Sister and Helix along with music from many genres.

The festival also includes cultural presentations, live art creations, dance productions and on August 30^th there will be an attempt to set a new mark with the Guinness World Record people for the World’s Largest Group Hug.

Corrigal says the festival idea came January 27^th as he and his business partner were working on a festival in Chetwynd and thought Prince George could use something like this.  He was at the SPCA, looking at getting a dog, “and I was talking with the manager there, gave her my card and said we’d like to possibly do a fundraiser for you.  Nick and I sat down with her a couple of days later and the next thing you know, we walked out of there and we were going to do Woof Stock.”

Corrigal recognized a need when he had a look at the SPCA shelter.  “I hadn’t been there since I’ve been back home, and it’s very small, right beside a sewage plant, it doesn’t have the room to even come close to scratching the surface for the need in Prince George in its capacity, so right away I wanted to do something for them.”

“Instead of just donating some money we thought, let’s make this a big project.  We  decided to get partnered up with our builders and suppliers in Prince George and go forward trying to drum up the initial funds to start the project for building a brand new facility in Prince George and then donating the facility to the BC SPCA.  There’s a few other humane shelters that we’re going to kick some cash to, in the grand scheme of things it’s smaller, but for them (SPCA) it’s huge.”

Construction of a brand new SPCA shelter would have a significant cost attached, and Corrigal outlined his fundraising goal.  “Well for this year we’re trying to raise a million dollars.  If we do a sellout crowd we’ll be able to raise that million dollars.”  He says a sellout over the course of the five-day event would be 13,000 people.

“If we do a sellout we’ll be roughly around $2.5 million, and then we have to cover our costs of just shy of a million.  We’re doing the million for the non-profit, and we’ve got a remainder of a couple hundred thousand to split up between basically twenty people” which, he says, is compensation for “the guys who’ve put their blood, sweat and tears into this.” Corrigal adds “so it’s not a complete, one hundred percent non-profit festival, but the majority is going to the cause.  I can’t say that for most non-profit organizations.”

Securing the bands for the festival takes some up-front money.  Corrigal says “we’ve already paid their deposits.”  So who is his backer?  “John Paolucci from Rolling Mix, actually.  He’s backed this whole thing and he’s done so much for us, in-kind and just cash values too.  He’s our main backer for all of it.  In all honesty, first day I met him we shook hands and we signed papers pretty much.  He was all over it.  Anything for the community he figured ya, this is a good thing.”

Corrigal’s experience in seeking out that support resulted in a broader look at the community. “I feel one thing that we’re really lacking in Prince George is our entertainment.  That’s one of the reasons why the majority of Prince George is over the age of 38 and why the younger generation, just like when I got out of high school, we all move away.  There isn’t much to do (entertainment-wise).  My nephew’s friends, younger people I know, they’d rather move down to Vancouver and starve and work five jobs so that they might be able to see a show.  There’s actually entertainment down there.”

Corrigal is interested in doing things to enhance his home town, Prince George.  “We’re looking at this year for this festival, we want to run it annually.  After the project is complete with the building I’m sure we’ll find something else in the humane area to focus on.  Every event that we do we’ll be giving back to the community.  We’ll be adding something in infrastructure, we’ll be putting money toward something that’s going to bolster the city.”

“We live here, our kids live here, our kids’ kids will live here probably.  If we live in this place why not make it the best place we possibly can?”  “You know I hear it all the time, Prince George is this and Prince George is that, all negative context.  You know, Prince George is boring, there’s nothing to do here.  “They” need to do this and “they” need to do that.”  But he adds, you are “they”, we are “they”.  If you want something, create it.  I you have an idea, pursue it.  If you think that it’s a good idea then put the wheels in motion, right?”

He says he recently had a brief conversation in an elevator with Mayor Lyn Hall.  “He’s got a great viewpoint on a lot of things, he was very receptive to everything.  We talked briefly about concerts downtown, because I would like to put those on.  Really nice free concerts or by-donation concerts, downtown on George Street or even in the park.”

“Right now I’d like to concentrate on the downtown sector because that’s something that needs to be occupied more.  People need to stop being afraid to be downtown.   I live down here and walk down here all the time.  Not one moment have I ever felt unsafe, same with my girlfriend.”

He believes it’s time to act to change perceptions of the city.  “Even though we’re no longer the most dangerous city in Canada, nobody ever talks about who now holds that.  It’s still just looming on us and that energy is still here.  We need to break that energy if we’re ever going to step forward.”

“We don’t need to apologize for what our city is and what it was, because it was actually taken out of context.  It was a statistical analysis that was dramatized by a publication into something that was demonizing a city, basically trying to cripple a city.”

Corrigal is also working on events in June and August of next year to benefit the community.  “The June one is going to be a strictly family festival the first week when kids get out of school.  “We’ll have specific stages for specific age groups with age-appropriate entertainment, workshops, lectures, informational stuff, just basically a space for the kids to grow and learn and play and have a good time a just be kids.”

Corrigal, who has a 5-year-old and another child on the way any day now, says “we’ll have stuff for the little guys, the kinda little guys, teenagers, adults and then families as a whole.  Family-building workshops and exercises, games and activities and other fun things to do.”

“We will be raising money for youth sport subsidies in Prince George.  I personally believe that sports are a huge building block in peoples’ lives and I think that kids should just be able to play.  Now, how many Barry Bonds and Wayne Gretzkys get passed by because their families can’t afford for them to play?  I mean look at what it costs for a kid to play hockey, it’s crazy.”

His idea is to create a non-profit organization in Prince George for youth sport subsidies.  “Kids Can Play, that would be the motto.  The 10-year goal would be for Prince George youth sports to be as affordable as possible, if not free, for a lot of families that can’t afford it.  So we would have subsidies to try to drop down league fees.”  Corrigal believes it will attract people to move here because there is more opportunity for their children.

Corrigal notes that, following repeated demand, organizers are now selling single-day passes for Woof Stock 2015.  “The day passes are a little more costly though.  With traffic control, with security, RCMP, things like that the day pass is $125.”

“We’ve got kids day passes as well.  The teen ones are $75 for the day pass for 13 to 18-year-olds.  For the little guys it’s $25 for a day pass for the 12 to 6-year-olds.  Five and under are free.  Full weekend passes, which include camping, are $250.

We also have a shuttle service available running from CN Centre and Pine Centre Mall from 7 am till 10 pm.  We’ve got four busses running, two on each location.”

Go to  www.woofstockmusicfestival.com  for further information about the festival.