PETERBOROUGH — Saskatchewan-based Farm Tribute Canada is planning a farm-aid style music concert for next summer in the Peterborough area that is touted as attracting 40,000 people.

However, the Peterborough Examiner reports that Farm Tribute Canada took $20,000 in seed money from the town of Oxbow, Saskatchewan, but never staged a concert and never returned the money.

There was nothing dishonest about the endeavour, says Brittany Staines, a former government development officer, in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. "The organization needed more financial backing and the backing didn’t come," she told Farmers Forum. "I’m not a financial expert but I’d say the cost of the show would be several million."

After the failure, the organization drifted apart, she said, and the main organizer, Catherine Leal, moved back to Ontario where she is the current executive director. She says the purpose of the Peterborough concert is to give agriculture a profile.

Leal and her group have not given a date for the Peterborough area concert, saying only that it shouldn’t conflict with the Havelock Jamboree, Ontario’s biggest country music attraction east of Toronto.

The township of Cavan-Monaghan, chosen because of its proximity to Highway 115 and Highway 401, has set aside $20,000 for the event and struck a special events committee to work with show organizers.