Numbers are in: Timmins' Stars and Thunder festival a success, despite shortfall

Even though the event ended up losing money, the majority of Timmins' city council feels the Stars and Thunder festival was a success.

The eight day music and fireworks festival was held in late June, wrapping up on Canada Day.

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Mayor Steve Black presented the expense report to council last night.

It shows $4.4 million in expenditures and $4.3 million in revenues, creating a shortfall of about $30,000.

Councillor Joe Campbell said he is upset the event cost taxpayers money, and he doesn't want that to happen again.

He insisted a strict budget be enforced in the future.

"I don't want to lose all the economic benefits that this brought to the community," Campbell said.

"You can't put a dollar value on those, but on the other hand we have to realistically sit here, bite the bullet and say this is how much it cost us and move forward."

But other councillors, like Mike Doody, had praise for the mayor on his big gamble.

"We took a chance, all of us sitting around this table, we took a chance," Doody said.

"We did well, the reaction has been great, we've learned from it and I got to tell you, people have been asking 'Are you going to do this again next year?'"

City council will vote Aug.22 on whether the Stars and Thunder festival will go ahead in 2018.