The Thursday night headline act for the Fort Frances Canadian Bass Championship unexpectedly cancelled their performance yesterday afternoon, leaving organizers scrambling to find a replacement.
Country band Doc Walker from Winnipeg was to perform at 8 p.m.
but they cancelled when a family emergency kept them attending.
“From what I understand, one of the band member’s parents had a heart attack,” said Dave Ashworth, the FFCBC director in charge of nighttime entertainment.
“It’s an unfortunate incident, a thing you can’t control.” He added they didn’t hear the news until “yesterday midday-ish,” which left him scrambling to find a replacement band.
“We basically tried to put some options into play,” Ashworth said, adding they tried their best to leave things open to try and get the band here by other means.
Eventually, they couldn’t wait any longer. “We had to make a decision,” he said.
“Milestone,” a local band that plays new and older country music, was chosen to perform in Doc Walker’s place.
“They were playing the opening act,” said Ashworth, adding Milestone (consisting of Romeo Duguay, Myron Hawrylak, Vince Sheppard, Lance Whalen, and Geoff Gillon) merely took on the added role of playing all night.
The band had to play to a lessthan- capacity crowd. “We had a descent crowd,” said Ashworth.
“Milestone did a fantastic job.” Only between 100-200 people turned out— a far cry from the 1,800 who attended the annual “Quest for the Best” contest on Wednesday night under the big tent at the Sorting Gap Marina.
“You put a name like Doc Walker up and you will get more sales,” Ashworth remarked.
He admitted there probably were a few people who decided not to come because Doc Walker wasn’t performing. He also said a few people asked for refunds on their advance tickets—which cost $12 each—after the news was announced during yesterday afternoon’s weigh-in.
“We ended up refunding people their tickets, or giving a rebate if they still wanted to go to the show,” Ashworth said.
“Our expenses with Doc Walker not coming will be less, but then again our revenue is less,” he added.
“We look at that as last night and this is today.” Tonight’s entertainment will be headlined by “Harlequin,” which is scheduled to take the stage at the Sorting Gap Marina around 10-30- 11 p.m.
Local group “Hearsay,” winner of Tuesday night’s “Battle of the Bands,” will be the opening act, starting at 9:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $12 in advance and $15 at the gate.
“Caraballo” will play tomorrow night to close out this year’s bass tournament. Tickets cost $10 each for that show.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
