Booze- and drug-free comedy and music festival set for Saturday in Langford
Tickets: Sold OutIt often comes down to alcohol sales to generate profit, which makes the presence of alcohol at events an integral part of the production. But where does that leave patrons who would like to attend but don’t want to be around drugs and alcohol?
“It was so overwhelming. I was close to relapsing. Now, I can go to a concert or an event and it doesn’t bother me, but in early recovery it was super hard.” The first public event under his ReWired banner is SoberFest, which is getting by through a combination of ticket sales — the event sold out in advance — and sponsorships. ReWired became a reality on July 1, and Manhas said his team has already raised nearly $250,000 for the foundation. Money from the festival, which should be able to pay for four or five addiction treatment beds, will help move that total forward, he said.
B.C. is losing six people per day, on average, to toxic drugs, Manhas said. With wait times of several months for beds at public addictions facilities, he’s hoping partnerships with addiction recovery organizations like the Umbrella Society and Together We Can, among others, will expedite the process.
When they started booking acts for the festival, the buy-in was immediate. Some of the performers have band members in recovery, Hudson said. “The main thing is to have people who want to be there. More than anything, the hope is they want to be part of something cool and connect with like-minded people who are also into sobriety.”
Billon Finlayson threw her support behind the event, knowing how much her brother cared about helping others, and the degree to which he struggled to stay sober. He would have been “all for something like this,” she said, because inclusiveness in the comedy community — “an industry that can often be pretty cutthroat” — was one of his passions.
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