'London Music and Art Festival' coming to Victoria Park to fill void left by Home County's departure
![London Music and Art Festival After Family Shows Canada announced it would host the London Music and Art Festival in London, Ont. in July 2024, organizers have since pulled the plug on the event due to backlash over similarities to Home County Music & Art Festival. (Source: Canadasbiggestparty.com)](/content/dam/ctvnews/en/images/2024/2/10/london-music-and-art-festival-1-6764033-1708281032457.png)
Family Shows Canada (FSC), which runs London’s Ribfest, is bringing a music and art festival to downtown London, Ont. in July.
The festival will try to fill a void left by the departure of the Home County Music and Art Festival (HCMAF).
"It's going to be very similar to what I do now with Ribfest," said Doug Hillier, owner of FSC. "I will not hire any entertainer past two hundred kilometres away. Home County had entertainers from across Canada and that would be very expensive. They had five stages and I will go down to two, so those are the big differences."
Hillier said he has been questioned whether he can pull this off the same way it was with HCMAF, and he is adamant it won't be as he won’t use big name artists.
An undated image of Doug Hillier, owner of Family Shows Canada. He plans to hold the London Music and Art Festival in downtown London, Ont. in July 2024. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)"However I see the crowd that is there, and I'm hoping they will enjoy my rendition of it," said Hillier. "It will be a combination of all my events. They (HCMAF) were music and I was always food with music. The food is the star, where in this one, the music is the star. We've always had 25-50 bands at Ribfest with all genres, even folk".
Hillier said unlike HCMAF, his festival will have to be self-sustaining and not requiring a grant.
He believes he is qualified to pull off the festival.
The Home County Music and Art Festival in 2019. HCMAF announced it will not be returning in 2024. (Brent Lale/CTV News London)CTV has spoken with a few people - who wished not to be named - who questioned Hillier's choice of logo which looks very similar to the HCMAF, and also referencing the 50-year old HCMAF in his vendor application.
He has added the word London to his logo but it looks very similar. On his FSC website, he showed the logos for the two festivals side by side.
"I did that on purpose, it is not to rip off Home County, it's to show respect," said Hillier. "If they want to come back, I want the same vendors to come back. I've made a deal with them (HCMAF) and the city that after this year if they want to come back, I'll give it up."
The festival is planned for July 12-14, 2024.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6976926.1721883767!/httpImage/image.png_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.png)
DEVELOPING Alberta's request for federal assistance approved after fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park: Trudeau
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on social media that Ottawa has approved Alberta's request for federal assistance after a fast-moving wildfire hit Jasper National Park and its townsite late Wednesday.
BREAKING Loblaw, George Weston to settle class action over bread price-fixing for $500 million
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. say they have agreed to pay $500-million to settle a class-action lawsuit regarding their involvement in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme.
EXCLUSIVE One address, 76 foreign currency dealers: Inside Canada's money service business 'clusters'
An IJF and CTV News investigation has found dozens of cases across Canada where multiple money services businesses (MSBs) are incorporated at the same address, sometimes without the knowledge or consent of the location's actual occupant. One money laundering expert calls it an 'abuse of the system.'
U.K. police officer suspended after video appears to show a man being kicked in head
A British police officer was suspended from all duties Thursday after a video was posted on social media that appeared to show an officer kicking and stamping on the head of a man lying on the floor of a terminal at Manchester Airport.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP 'blacked-out' and crashed car into window of child care centre
Staff at a Barrie child care centre say they are frustrated by what they call a local MPP's inadequate response after a car crashed through a window in one of the toddler rooms.
Norad intercepts Russian and Chinese bombers operating together near Alaska in apparent first
The North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) intercepted two Russian and two Chinese bombers flying near Alaska Wednesday in what appears to be the first time the two countries have been intercepted while operating together.
Biden explains why he ended re-election bid in Oval Office address
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a solemn call to voters to defend the country's democracy as he laid out in an Oval Office address his decision to drop his bid for reelection and throw his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris.
Jasper mayor says alert system to be reviewed after message 'glitch'
More than 25,000 people have been displaced from Jasper National Park since wildfires started to threaten the picturesque corner of Alberta Rockies on Monday, but the mayor of its namesake municipality says not everyone received an evacuation alert when it was sent out.
Unclaimed bodies are piling up in Newfoundland. A funeral director blames the government
A funeral director in St. John's says the bodies piling up in freezers at Newfoundland and Labrador's largest hospital likely belong to people whose loved ones couldn't get enough government help to pay for a funeral.