Wakestock organizers call it "the country's largest outdoor sports event." It was hoped that Collingwood's economy would benefit from as much as 1 million dollars in tourism dollars being spent in the area throughout the popular weekend event. Friday, August 7th saw the Malibu Boats Wakestock Amateur Wakeboard Championship kick off the weekend. The professionals took over the harbour and competed on Saturday and Sunday, August 8th and 9th. Wakestock provided Collingwood with a major summer special event that catered to a younger crowd. Town officials feel the addition of Wakestock to Ride for Sight and the Collingwood Elvis Festival was a positive move from a tourism point of view.

Musical performances throughout the weekend included Desperate Union, The Strangers, Civet, Closet Monster, USS, Classified, Social Distortion, D'NA, Rebel Emergency, Stereos, Fall and Divide (featuring Collingwood's Drew Wright) and Collingwood's "The Midway State."

Wakestock officials told Collingwood Council earlier this year that the event has matured into one of Canada's leading outdoor festivals, adding that problems experienced in Wasaga Beach when that community hosted the event until 2004 had not been experienced again during Wakestock festivals that were held at the Toronto islands. Wakestock representatives said that the Toronto location allowed for much better crowd control, as did the Collingwood harbour location at Millennium Park.

Collingwood Mayor Chris Carrier compared the positive growth of Wakestock to other festivals that the town has hosted. "I remember a few years ago when the first Ride for Sight program came, there were some incidents. They built upon that, recognized some of the deficiencies and they had several years of a more successful event afterwards, and when they left we were all disappointed" Carrier said. Carrier added that the Wakestock event has had somewhat of a checkered past but feels organizers have built a successful event having overcome some of the unfortunate issues that took place when it was held in Wasaga Beach.

Deputy Mayor Sandra Cooper felt the arrival of Wakestock represented a major benefit to the economy of Collingwood. Cooper felt the event represented an opportunity for the town to offer something of significance to young people, under the age of 30. "I believe we can learn from the negative experiences of past events to improve on this" Cooper said.

Organizers prediced that Wakestock in the new Collingwood location would attract up to 10 thousand spectators from August 7th to 9th.

The best wakeboarders and wakeskaters in the world were in Collingwood for Wakestock 2009, including returning champions Rusty Malinoski and Stuart Shinn. For more information, results, official festival photos and videos, visit www.wakestock.com.