The Halifax Common will host two major concerts within one week of each other in July, and the municipality is trying some new tactics to keep the field ship-shape.
Shaune MacKinlay, Halifax Regional Municipality’s Manager for Public Affairs, said large parts of the North Common will be off-limits to cars and trucks involved in the concert preparations.
Paul McCartney is performing at the Common Saturday, July 11, with Kiss taking the stage July 18.
“The real issue with the Common is not the number of people on it,” MacKinlay said about how concerts in the past damaged the field. “It’s the tires that turn up the soil that have been the bigger issue.”
Patrick Dickson, who supervises the maintenance of the Common, said the plan at this point is for McCartney and Kiss to both deliver their shows on a stage set up near the corner of Robie and Cunard streets. He said the roped-off area will be around some of the baseball diamonds along Cogswell Street.
Dickson said the last time the Common hosted a concert, when Keith Urban came to town last August, it took three weeks to finish the bulk of the repairs, and the rest of the work won’t be done until mid-June.
According to MacKinlay, part of the money from ticket sales for the McCartney and Kiss shows will be set aside to help with field repairs and improvements.
