Muskoka to host new music festival?

Plans are in the works to introduce bring a new music festival to the Muskoka Airport in Gravenhurst.

“We're looking at a two day music festival with a goal of 20 to 30,000 people,” said airport manager Mark Stirling.

Chuck McDougallof the Muskoka Bay Club, which is helping organize the concert, says they’re looking to attract some big nameperformers to the showas well.

“I think this is going to be a wonderful addition to Muskoka”, he said.

“I think it's going to shine a wonderful light on it as a great cultural event, and expose tens of thousands of people to what Muskoka has to offer and some of the great facilities that we have.”

McDougall says they’re planning to keep the airport open during the show, and will put the stage on the grass runway.

Stirling says there are still a lot of logistical details to be worked out, but he thinks it will be a success.

“Provided that we can set up a safe barrier between the concert and the active airport section of the airport, we're confident that it can work,” he said.  “We've held events similar to this before but maybe not to quite the same scale.”

Muskoka District Council still has some issues to work out before holding an initial vote on the plan on Monday- such as how to get 30,000 people in and out of the area safely, and where they would camp.

Organizers expect the concert could cost as much as $3 million to put on.