Montebello businesses, residents hope for Rockfest's return

They may not all be crazy aboutthe music, but people who live and work in Montebello, Que., are hoping the recentbankruptcy filing by Montebello Rockfestisn't the end of the annual festival.

The organizers of Rockfest, which brings tens of thousands of music fans each summer to the small western Quebec town, were $5 million in debt when they applied for insolvency protection in June.

In a statement posted to Facebook on Friday, Rockfestfounder Alex Martel said the organization hadbeen unable to recover financially and was now declaring bankruptcy.

• Montebello Rockfest declares bankruptcy

"I still hope [Rockfest] stays in Montebello. It's very important for businesses and for people here," said Pierre Nguyen, owner of a local convenience store, in a French-Language interview with Radio-Canada.

After this summer's three-day festival, organizers acknowledged that some100 creditors including artists and technicians had not been paid. The festival had been given $500,000 by the Quebec government one week prior to declaring insolvency.

Nevertheless, Martel said last week that he remained optimistic the festival which featured the likes of Dropkick Murphys, Sum 41 and Weezerthis year would continue in some form.

Conditional support

AlainPrfontaine, a customer at Nguyen's store, said he'd be in favour oflocal and provincialofficials working to ensure the festivalcontinues in Montebello but not at any cost.

"I'm not sure that a village the size of Montebello is capable of taking on a debt as big as that. I would not want to put people in trouble or to borrow money [to keep Rockfest going]," he said in French.

Mathieu Lacombe, the MNA for Papineau and Quebec's ministerfor the Outaouais region, said in a tweet that he'd already been in touchwith Martel, MontebelloMayor Martin Deschnes, and Caroline Proulx, the province's tourism minister.

Radio-Canada reached out to Deschnesfor comment onSaturday but did not hear back.