Lucknow Kinsmen planning new clubhouse, daycare space for community

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

Over the years, the Lucknow Kinsmen have mastered the art of the makeshift music festival. Every summer, thousands of music fans flock to Huron-Kinloss to attend Music in the Fields (MITF), and every summer, the Kinsmen work together with hundreds of volunteers to transform 55 acres of former cow pasture known as Graceland into a massive, weekend-long musical wonderland complete with hundreds of campsites, multiple performance stages, a hospitality tent, and an outdoor food court. They also create production space, a kitchen, and change rooms for the performers, achieving it all through a cobbled-together system of tents, trailers, and rented furniture.

 

The festival has developed a reputation for drawing big name acts, big crowds and big money. MITF seems to grow exponentially each year, and, as a result, the Kinsmen have realized that they need a more substantial solution to the persistent problem of their continuous success. They’ve devised a plan to construct a fully-serviced, multi-purpose building in the field. It will provide the Kinsmen with some much-needed storage space, a meeting area where they can plan events, and, during events, it will act as a hospitality headquarters. The building will also contain a year-round daycare facility for local families.

 

Kinsman Rick McMurray is the one to ask when it comes to this ambitious new project. He’s been with the organization for almost 40 years, and feels that it’s high time the service group has a place to hang their collective hats. “We really are running a multimillion-dollar business now,” he pointed out. “It’s kind of a big business, so we need a place to anchor us, and go to, and hold our files and things like that.” 

 

The Kinsmen put all the money they raise through events like MITF right back into the community. Some of the money goes to local hospitals, some goes to schools in Lucknow and Ripley, and some goes to the Kinsmen Club’s national cause: fighting cystic fibrosis. “We’re hoping eventually that this disease will have less impact on our fellow Canadians and around the world.” 
The Lucknow branch of the Kinsmen Club has been around since 1973. Back then, the group used to meet in a room over a garage near the town tennis courts. When that property changed hands a few years ago, the Kinsmen started holding their meetings at the Lucknow Community Centre. “We’ve always kind of wanted a place where we can call our own and keep our stuff, so to speak,” McMurray explained.

 

The Kinsmen used to organize musical concerts at the local arena, but limited seating space meant that they couldn’t attract the sort of big-name acts they knew would bring the crowds to Lucknow. “We needed a bigger venue. So we talked about it, and we decided to go up to the soccer fields.” The soccer fields worked just fine for a while, but MITF just kept growing. The move to Graceland allowed the festival to grow even faster. “We’ve definitely made over two million today,” he said. “It’s been a really good event… this year’s sales are through the roof for both tickets and camping, and we still haven’t announced our lineup yet!” The Kinsmen are hoping that the new building will help them bring the event to the next level of professionalism. 

 

The Dungannon Super Pull (DSP) has also found a home at Graceland. “They just outgrew their place in Dungannon,” McMurray explained. “And then at this venue here, with the space that we have for parking and camping - it just went fwoosh!” The DSP has its own committee that works with the Kinsmen to put on the annual vehicular-themed weekend, which now attracts thousands of visitors every year. McMurray and the other Kinsmen couldn’t be happier with how successful both events have become in such a short time period. “It’s crazy and unheard of,” he said. “‘It’s awesome,’ is a really good way to say it. And it just makes you smile - watching the community come together to put it on. We have over 300 volunteers for MITF and another big number for the tractor pull. Everybody comes together, we all have a common cause, and a common goal, and it happens, and at the end of the day there’s money to give out to things that really make sense for our community.” 

 

Rather than let their soon-to-be building sit empty during their extensive off-season, they wanted to come up with a way to make it useful, year-round. That’s when the idea for a daycare came into play. “The Kinsman motto is ‘serving the community’s greatest needs,’” he said. “So it falls right into what we try to do.” Lucknow does already have a daycare on Campbell Street, but the demand for childcare far exceeds its capacity. “There is an 82-child waiting list in Lucknow. So, we can put the daycare centre there - we’ll use it for one week a year, for green rooms for the bands. It keeps the building being used… and there’s also synergies, like the kitchen! We put a kitchen in, but now it’s going to be used all the time - to feed the children. It’s win-win,” McMurray explained.

 

Of course, the Kinsmen won’t be minding the children themselves - the daycare space will be rented out to trained childcare professionals. McMurray counts this as a big additional benefit of the project - new jobs will be created, and the Kinsmen will use the revenue from rent to fund community betterment initiatives.

 

It’s taken a lot of work to bring the building project to this point. As a former pasture, Graceland was not zoned for any kind of building. The Kinsmen were not deterred. “We had to go for new zoning, and change the official plan and whatnot, so that takes a lot of time. And time it took,” McMurray recalled. On Jan. 13, Huron-Kinloss Council finally voted to approve and support the club’s plan. 

 

There’s also a lot to do before the new building is up and running, but the Kinsmen are hoping to have it ready by this year’s MITF. “We developed a building committee, but in order to have this completed by mid-August, we’ll have to follow the schedule really closely. It’s going to be a tight, tight timeline. Like, really tight,” he admitted. “We might be in various stages of construction but we’re going to have to make sure we can actually use the building.” 

 

At a time when many service clubs seem to be struggling, the Lucknow Kinsmen are thriving, and McMurray feels that anchor events like MITF are a big part of their success. “We still have a good foundation, and we’re still attracting new members,” he pointed out. “We try to get people involved in projects like this, and try to show them the tremendous value in Kinsmen. I’m not going to say it’s easy to keep the clubs going - we’re all now getting up in years, but we still have some younger people in our club… it’s encouraging to see them take on roles. I will also say that our MITF Committee has a lot of community members that aren’t just Kinsmen.”

 

At the moment, the Lucknow Kinsmen aren’t looking to add any more big events to their repertoire - they just want to keep on perfecting the ones they already help put on. “We always look at continuous improvement for each event, and the lessons learned, and try to keep it fresh and exciting… we have transitioned from a complete country music festival to a mish-mash now - there’s a bit of rock, and a bit of other genres. And I think that’s keeping it fresh as well,” McMurray explained. “We certainly welcome any new members, in any capacity. They’re always helpful. And that’s what keeps us strong, is some fresh people and different perspectives that make us better as a whole, for sure. And it really does work. We’ve got a good club.”