10 years later: Gentlemen of the Road Stopover left a mark on Norfolk

The Gentlemen of the Road Simcoe Stopover in August 2013 shows what a community can accomplish, says one of the key organizers of the event.

“I think the legacy of the GOTR is that it showed us what is possible if a community works together, if people volunteer, if everyone puts their back into it, a community can achieve great things,” Clark Hoskin said. “It showed us that we shouldn’t discount visionary ideas and that we should be ready to respond when the next visionary idea comes along, even if it doesn’t involve a well-meaning rock band.”

The GOTR Simcoe Stopover took place Aug. 23 and 24, 2013. It featured Mumford & Sons and brought more than 30,000 people to the Norfolk County Fairgrounds and pumped an estimated $10 million into the local economy.

Hoskin, who now works at Deloitte, was the county’s head of economic development at the time and, like many others, he has fond memories of the event. His favorite is attending the Mumford & Sons concert with his daughters.

The community-wide effort was recognized by the Economic Development Council of Ontario. The council presented the Norfolk County Fair and Horse Show, Norfolk County, the Downtown Simcoe BIA, Live Nation and Mumford & Sons with the best public-private partnership award in 2014.

Former Norfolk County Mayor Dennis Travale remembers how everyone got involved in making the event a success including the downtown BIA, service clubs and local farmers who provided land for people to pitch tents and camp for the weekend.

While the community hasn’t put on a similarly large event like GOTR since, Travale said successive Norfolk County councils have worked to build off the concert in terms of supporting musical events.

Travale cited Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden has performed at Burning Kiln Winery a couple of times now and the Arkells, a Canadian rock band have also performed at the winery.

The goal of the event was to boost the local economy.

“At that time, the economy in Norfolk was in transition away from tobacco,” Travale said. “The economy, generally, wasn’t very good.”

The idea was to bring in an internationally-known band to draw visitors and help the economy.

“It was also an opportunity to showcase everything else Norfolk has to offer,” Travale said.

County officials say Amplify Norfolk was able to produce a large-scale concert by working with the Norfolk County Fair to put on the Fairground Festival earlier this year featuring The Beaches, Bif Naked, Sloan and Finger 11.

Although the Fairground Festival was roughly one-third the size in terms of attendance, county officials say they’re confident that, over time, it will reach GOTR levels and attract people from across Ontario and beyond to Norfolk County.

Karen Matthews, executive director of the Simcoe & District Chamber of Commerce, has a lot of fond memories of Gentlemen of the Road. At that time, Matthews was the general manager of the Norfolk County Fair and Horse Show and a big part of organizing the event.

“No one spilled the beans,” Matthews said with a laugh when asked about GOTR.

The band quietly visited Simcoe prior to the show to learn more about the area. They were especially pleased to learn about the late Rick Danko’s connection to the area. Danko was a member of the legendary group The Band.

“People knew who was coming and some people knew about the visits but no one said anything and we were able to keep everything under wraps until the formal announcement,” Matthews said.

Matthews also remembers getting phone calls from people around the world including Alaska looking to score tickets.

Following the announcement and during the lead up to the concerts, Simcoe was trending world-wide on Twitter, Matthews said.

“It was an amazing, magical weekend,” Matthews said.

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