New venue announced for rock show while Magnetic Hill sits empty 2 years in a row

A promoter in Moncton announced the lineup for Labour Day Rockfest on Wednesday. Emery Bourque is hoping 10,000people fill the River Glen Amphitheatre on the outskirts of Moncton in early September.

But a 20-minutedrive north, the Magnetic Hill concert site sits empty for the second year in a row.

At the concert announcement on Wednesday, Deputy Mayor Charles Leger said city council needs to come up with a plan for the empty site.

"It's always a disappointment that we haven't been able to bring anything to the hill."

Leger said the U.S. dollar and a lack of big names that can pull in the crowds needed to fill Magnetic Hill make booking bands complicated.

Since 2003, Magnetic Hill, once called the concert hub of the Maritimes, has hosted shows by the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, the Eagles, AC/DC, U2, Nickleback and Bruce Springsteen, among others.

According to Isabelle LeBlanc, communication director with the City of Moncton, maintaining thesite during a year when there is no event costs about $30,000.

"If we take 2016 as an example, the cost was $32,000 for the year."

Promoter Bourque, owner of Embou Productions, said he briefly considered the Magnetic Hill site for Labour Day Rockfest.

"We know that now if I took a concert of this size and took it over there you would lose the atmosphere," he said.

"The site would probably be too big."

Headlining the Labour Day festival is Canadian singer Burton Cummings, theformer Guess Who frontman. Also in the lineupare other Canadian superstars from decades past, Sass Jordan, Gowan and Stampeders. Nazareth, the Scottish 1970s power balladeers, round out the bill.

The concert will be held at Solomon Gardens,an untested concert site between the Salisbury Road and the PetitcodiacRiver normally used as a wedding venue.

But Bourquesaid the 100-acre site is a natural amphitheatre and perfectly suited to the thousands of people he is hoping will show up.

"If someone were to ask you to design a perfect concert site, this is what you'd come up with."

The Magnetic Hill concert site last hosted Australian rockers AC/DC in 2015. The site also sat empty in 2013 and 2014.

People who live in Moncton have never been told how much it costs to bring in the big acts that can fill the site. The cityhas consistently refused to make financial details public.