Music for the Soll a hit according to organizer

Helix lead singer Brian Vollmer gave thousands of fans a night to remember at the first Good for the Soll music festival. (Billy Mcewen Photography)

By all accounts, the first-ever Music for the Soll in Ingersoll was a huge success. Thousands of Ingersoll and area music fans turned out on Saturday, Aug. 24 where attendees were treated to three music acts, none of which disappointed. Downtown businesses were also busier than usual, something organizer Jay Panaseiko said was just what he wanted to see. He added he couldn’t be happier with the result.

“Epic is the word I would use to describe it. It was everything I thought it would be and more. I think we had over 4,000 people there. At one time we had a door count from one entrance at 1700 when the first band was on. We were only expecting 2,000. We knocked it out of the park!”

He added the numbers were a result of people buying into the vision of the festival.

“My goal was to have a concert for the people of Ingersoll. I think you get out of any project what you put into it and I put 150 per cent of my heart and soul into it. For six months it was my life. Because I had such a strong connection with Sarah Smith and Helix and with One Way Streets being from Ingersoll, the universal energies were just peace and harmony with the whole town rallying behind it.”

Panaseiko was pleased with the level of corporate sponsorship by Ingersoll businesses but he hopes next year will bring in even more.

“I did talk to (Oxford MPP) Ernie Hardeman and there is Ontario Creates and a bunch of other grants but we had missed the boat for this event. Now we will be able to apply for funding based on this year. We came up short on sponsorship but next year will be different. I have already had some businesses approach me.”

Headliners Helix had the crowd pumped with an energetic set including their massive hit Rock You. The crowd ranged from 19 up to 70 years of age and Panaseiko said the show they put on was impressive.

“I’ve been to a lot of Helix shows lately but I had never seen them so animated on stage. They fed off the crowd and it was incredible. I said this could be my Woodstock 1969 and I think it held true. There wasn’t one issue. Not one fight. It was all peace love and happiness.”

His attention now turns to next year when he hopes to repeat this year’s success. He said there are a few things he could tweak in 2025.

“Little things like the merchandise tent was too small. That’s not a major problem and I think maybe the beer tent, as big as it was, we could have one on each side of the site to keep lineups down. The sound company said there were a few little things they could improve next year. We just need to find the next band.”

Panaseiko said Helix was easy to work with and let him use their branding as he saw fit made marketing the show easier. He also had a lot of kudos to hand out to his supporters.

“We turned Ingersoll into Helixville for a month. Is another band going to do that or is just going to be a concert? We were talking about Honeymoon Suite and I just saw Loverboy open for Sammy Hagar so we will see what happens next year. I have heard from people asking for the Glorious Sons and Tea Party too.”

Panaseiko is exploring a two-day festival in 2025, something that is in the works.

“If you are going to set up all that stuff up it doesn’t cost anything extra to leave it up for an extra day. It was a lot of work for five hours of music. I’d love to hear comments from anyone who went on our Facebook page or at info@goodforthesoll.com about what we can do next year.”

While there weren’t many hiccups on the night, Panaseiko did say he had to enlist the help of his mother when the screen on stage kept tripping the switch at the park.

“I had to get a generator and we got that going but during One Way Streets, it ran out of gas. I can’t get gas when I am at the show so I had my mom running around like a chicken with her head cut off then I had someone get me more gas in case I ran out again. That was about the biggest hiccup of the night.”

He added the weather cooperated and the cleanup crew left the park just like it was before the event.

“We tore everything down and the next day you drove by the park and it looked like it never happened. You couldn’t tell we were even there. I’d like to thank everyone who was there from the bottom of my heart. It was a dream I had and it became a reality. It was everything I wanted it to be.”