MONCTON, NB–Mother Nature did battle with concert goers at the first show of the season on Magnetic Hill in Moncton.  But in the end, Nickelback  won.

The sky opened up several times, dumping rain on the fans, but City Manager Jacques Dube says Moncton’s well designed concert site allowed the acts to go on.  “We had close to a foot of water in front of the stage at one point.   Between the acts we brought in pump trucks and were able to vacuum some of the water out.  The drainage system worked well.  There was no drainage system in the world that could act that quickly and drain it out so quickly.”

There were two severe thunderstorm warnings issued by Environment Canada for the region on Saturday.  One in the afternoon, and the other in the evening.  The concert site lost power prior to the acts going on.   

But Dube says even the Agent for Nickelback said, “Had that storm hit at any other site in the world, they would have cancelled the show.  But the Hill site is the only site that could withstand that kind of wind and rain at one time.”

Dube says, “Moncton has invested millions of dollars on the site and we’re seeing the payback.”

Final ticket sale numbers won’t be released until later today, but according to concert-goers, about 25, 000 attended the show.

The rain certainly didn’t deter anyone.   Dube says some of the fans actually enjoyed doing some mud sliding and dancing in the rain.