Remember when the Town of Lake Cowichan’s elected officials waffled back and forth on the Centennial Park camping issue, effectively angering members of the public that sat on either side of the argument?
History repeats itself; this time with the Cowichan Valley Community Radio Society.
Last week, the Cowichan Valley Community Radio Society announced that they would no longer support the monthly music show Music in the Lake. Two days later, acting chair Ron McKenzie sent out an e-mail that stated, “the decision to withdraw from the Music in the Lake is put on hold,” to be discussed during a September board of directors meeting. Why not think things out more fully the first time around, before a decision is made public?
There are many potential reasonable explanations for the radio society to discontinue their sponsorship of Music in the Lake, the main one being a lack of funds to do so. However, the only argument provided for their previously-announced discontinuing of their sponsorship has been that Music in the Lake is not local enough an event, and typically features out-of-town performers.
Did they expect a different local headlining act every single month? There have been a few local headliners, after all, but how many musicians do they think live in the Cowichan Lake area and are willing and able to put on full set of music?
Was the full hour’s worth of an open stage that has opened each event, during which time any local musician interested in performing was invited to do so, not enough?
Sounds like there’s more to the story than meets the eye. There must be, as the sole justification they’ve provided simply does not fly.
Let’s hope that either fences are mended or one of the groups starts work at organizing a monthly replacement event some time soon. If not for Music in the Lake, decent music shows at Cowichan Lake are limited to three times per year; Lake Days, the Great Lake Walk, and Canada Day.