Folk on the Rocks beer garden will have extended hours this weekend

Beer will be flowing late into the night at Yellowknife's Folk on the Rocks music festival this year.

The beer garden at the festival site on Long Lake will be open until 1 a.m. Friday night, midnight Saturday and 9 p.m. Sunday.

The change was prompted by survey results following last year's festival, said Andrew Livingstone, chair of the festival's selection committee.

Between 200 and 300 people filled out surveys after last year's Folk on the Rocks, asking for later hours in the beer garden, he said.

"We really wanted to start tailoring the festival to whatpatrons want," Livingstone said.

• 'The festival hasn't suffered': Folk on the Rocks comes together without executive director

The later hours at the beer garden could also bring added revenue. The festival losta combined $170,000 in 2014 and 2015.

"I think everyone's aware of the challenges we've faced financially," Livingstone said. "We've managed to pull ourselves into a better position this year, but the hope is we can take that further with the changes this year."

Though the beer garden will open at 1:30 p.m., it won't start serving alcohol until 3 p.m. on the weekend, Livingstone said.

There will also be safety patrols and water stations on site for people who've had too much to drink.

"We understand that there's always going to be concerns about alcohol at the festival," Livingstone said. "But the thought was that if you give people a longer period of time to enjoy an alcoholic beverage people will tend to pace themselves."

"We're hoping that by increasing the amount of time the beer garden is open and opening it later, we're actually helping to mitigate some of that overindulgence."

For people looking to get to the festival, the City of Yellowknife is offering a shuttle service all weekend. For more information, follow this link.