We get to see just how glamorous this city can be at the Celebration opening of Performing Arts Centre.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  November 23, 2011  – Will it be tails and white ties?  Probably not; but it will be as fancy as dress gets in Burlington with the Celebration opening of the Burlington Performance Arts Centre (BPAC) on Saturday December 3rd.  For those women who don’t have a hair dresser appointment – get a wiggle on.

People in the BPAC marketing department are predicting a SOLD OUT of the 700 seats that are going for $400. A pop.  And there are no freebies for this one.  You buy a ticket and you get a seat.

Sarah McLachlan has an ability to "caress" a microphone and will enchant the audience at the $400. a seat "Celebration" event.

There are, reportedly, a couple of Council members who are not planning on attending.  The Mayor will be there – and a few other council members have said they will be in the building – but not all of them.

BPAC reports that they will break even on this event:  “It wasn’t designed as a money maker but rather as a ‘celebratory’ event for both the city and the Centre”.

Sarah McLaughlin who does not come cheap and if you want to get a sense of just what she is going to cost multiply the $400 per seat price by the 700 seats and you’ve got revenue of $280,000 – and if it’s a break-even – well you can figure out how much McLaughlin is going to cost.

This event is part of what former chairman of the Theatre Board, Keith Strong said would be a ‘soft opening’.  The policy was not to rush into the opening and make all kinds of mistakes.  The decision was to take small steps as they worked out the kinks in the building and in the operating procedures.  So far, there have been very few significant problems with the building and staff is developing quite well.

Small things, like the look of the web site are getting attention. “They are just little things” explained Marketing manager Hillary Sadler “but they make a difference in to the user experience”.

 

Return to the Front page
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Comments are closed.