It's a last-minute scramble, but the inaugural Woof Stock music festival at the end of the month will be able to go ahead with the blessing of the local government.
During Thursday afternoon's meeting, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George's board of directors approved a special events licence for the SPCA fundraiser scheduled for Aug. 27-30 at Vivian Lake Resort.
The licence was approved with the caveat that a handful of outstanding conditions be met by Monday.
The regional district bylaws require that applications for special event licences - for events with an expected attendance of more than 1,000 people - be made at least 180 days prior to the event.
Woof Stock didn't make their application until early July, leaving 53 days prior to the event for approval.
The six-month timeline is in place so that regional district staff can navigate all of the necessary approvals from their end as well as third parties, such as Northern Health and the Ministry of Transportation, said general manager of development services Terry McEachen.
"When we received the licence it was incomplete and I would say that today it's still incomplete with respect to a number of items," McEachen told the board on Thursday.
But directors said they didn't want to quash the "entrepreneurial spirit" demonstrated by organizer Jordan Corrigal and Maioha Aroha Productions, choosing to issue the licence with the understanding that come Monday outstanding issues be cemented.
Those include confirmation from the RCMP that they are satisfied with the security arrangements, approval of the medical plan by B.C. Emergency Health Services, have building permits issued for the three temporary stages on site as well as confirmation from the Ness Lake Volunteer Fire Department that they've signed off on their fire safety plan.
Festival director Corrigal said things are in motion for the outstanding items, including already scheduled meetings and walkthroughs with the RCMP and fire department.
"We're just basically hustling, hustling trying to get this done as quickly and most efficiently as we possibly can," Corrigal said. "We just want to really bring some solid entertainment to Prince George and also give back to the community."
Corrigal also noted that some things have been scaled down from the original plans, including nixing an attempt to break a Guinness World Record for largest group hug.
"We would like to at least to have the chance to move forward on this year, break even so that we can go into next year - start our planning in this next month coming up, get everything done properly for next year and next year we'd like to do two different events," Corrigal said, one being Woof Stock and the other a family-friendly event with children's programming to raise money for youth sport subsidies.
